Chime Snaps Up Fast Track In £15m Deal

Chime Communications, the marketing services agency network headed by Lord Bell,
has bought prominent sports marketing agency Fast Track in a deal which values
the latter at £15 million.

The buyout of Fast Track, which was founded in 1998 and has now grown to an
employee base of over 90, considerably enhances Chime’s states in sport with the
agency bringing major sports clients such as Heineken, UKAthletics, Camelot,
Sainsbury’s and Volvo into the group.

Fast Track, which includes Fast Track Sailing, delivers for clients in four
main areas: events, communications, consulting and rights marketing.

The initial bid values the agency at £15 million payable through £10 million
in cash from within the group’s facilities and £5 million in Chime shares.

The transaction, which is based on a multiple of 7 times average pre-tax
profits, could eventually add up to as much as £43 million, once deferred
payments are taken into consideration.  

At the end of last year the gross assets of the Fast Track Group were worth
£6.6 million.

Fast Track’s four principal shareholders and directors of the company; Alan
Pascoe, Edward Leask, John Ridgeon and Jim Glover will remain with the group
under their existing contractual arrangements.

Fast Track had built its reputation on work in Olympic sports, in particular
athletics, but its purchase of rival agency Lighthouse Communications at the end
of 2005 significantly enhanced its consultancy business across a variety of
sports.

Chime consists of a number of marketing services agencies across a variety of
disciplines including PR agencies Bell Pottinger and Harvard and ad agency VCCP.