LUD Ludorum

RNS Number:5225F
Ludorum PLC
11 October 2007


11 October 2007

Ludorum plc ("Ludorum" or "the Company")


Placing of 3,100,000 new ordinary shares at 100p per share to raise #3.1 million
for the Company.

The Board of Directors of Ludorum today announces proposals for a capital
raising to be effected by means of a placing of new Ordinary Shares at an issue
price of 100p per share to raise #3.1 million (before expenses) for the Company
with institutional and certain other investors.

Richard Rothkopf, Executive Chairman, will be subscribing for a total of 50,000
shares which will result in a holding post the placing of 270,000 shares or 3.3
per cent. of the Enlarged Share Capital of the Company.

Rob Lawes, Chief Executive Officer, will be subscribing for a total of 111,000
shares which will result in a holding post the placing of 541,000 shares or 6.7
per cent. of the Enlarged Share Capital of the Company.

Charles Caminada, Chief Operating Officer, will be subscribing for a total of
50,000 shares which will result in a holding post the placing of 342,000 shares
or 4.2 per cent. of the Enlarged Share Capital of the Company.

The net proceeds of the Placing will principally be used for the development of
its animated series, Chuggington, for which Ludorum secured a carriage agreement
with the BBC for the UK broadcast rights, as announced on 6 September 2007.

The Placing will include a placing with certain VCT investors and, accordingly,
will require two separate admissions. Subject to the EGM on 5 November 2007, it
is anticipated that the First Admission will become effective and dealings in
the First Placing Shares will commence at 8.00 am on 6 November 2007. The Second
Admission is expected to become effective and dealings in the Second Placing
Shares are expected to commence at 8.00 am on 7 November 2007. A circular
convening the EGM has been posted today.

For further information on Ludorum, please visit
www.ludorum.com or contact:

Enquiries
Rob Lawes - Chief Executive Officer
Charlie Caminada - Chief Operating Officer
Ludorum plc
+44 (0) 208 849 8735

Rupert Krefting / Andrew Craig
Investec
+44 (0) 207 597 4000

Introduction

Ludorum's strategy is focused on the development and acquisition of
entertainment-related intellectual property with the aim of managing and
enhancing the commercial exploitation of intellectual property rights across all
forms of traditional and new media platforms for the creation of shareholder
value. As an initial part of this strategy, Ludorum has developed and commenced
production of an animated series, named "Chuggington", designed for pre-school
age children. The Ludorum Board recently announced that it had secured two
significant trade agreements for Chuggington. The first is with a major US based
toy and consumer products company which has been granted a global master toy
licence for which it will contribute 50 per cent. of the production costs and
participate jointly in the net profit of the property. The second is a carriage
agreement with the BBC for UK broadcast rights with the first transmission
expected to commence in the first half of 2009. In addition, the Company is in
advanced negotiations for the local broadcast rights of the series with the
leading broadcaster in France and Germany.

The net proceeds of the Placing will be used to fund the next stage of the
Company's growth, including the completion of the production of the first series
of Chuggington, increasing its internal infrastructure and marketing resources
to exploit its intellectual property assets commercially and to provide the
Company with a strong balance sheet to enable it to pursue appropriate
acquisitions and protect its intellectual property and provide working capital.

The Placing is conditional (amongst other things) upon shareholder approval of
the Resolutions, which are necessary to enable Ludorum and the Directors to
effect the Placing and will be sought at the EGM to be held on 5 November 2007.

Information on Chuggington

Chuggington is a computer generated 3D animated series of 52 x 10 minute
episodes scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2008, as well as an
interactive website also scheduled for delivery at the same time. The series
follows the adventures of Wilson, Brewster and Koko, trainee diesel engines,
each with their own unique personality and learning style.   The series is set
in a world with cities, villages, diverse cultures and geography. Entertainment
and enjoyment is the focus of Chuggington, but embedded within each story are
important educational messages centred on learning and social-emotional
development. The product has been conceived to seamlessly integrate television,
books and interactive view-and-play.


An innovative on-line program is in development whereby parents will be able to
personalise the website for their children, specifying many parameters including
the level of community interaction desired. The Chuggington website will allow
parents to prioritise the developmental and learning issues that they consider
to be important to their children and the Directors believe it will present a
truly entertaining and immersive interactive world of Chuggington which is
graphically and textually consistent with the world defined by the television
series, and which is also uniquely interactive with various licensed products.


Chuggington, which has an initial production budget of $6.3 million, is directed
by Sarah Ball, who won a BAFTA award for her work as a director and writer of
Bob the Builder. The executive producers are Charlie Caminada, Ludorum's Chief
Operating Officer and Don Toht, who prior to joining Ludorum in 2006 as Vice
President, Concept Development, was the Chief Creative Officer for RC2
Corporation where his responsibilities included the design of the Thomas &
Friends, Lamaze and Bob the Builder toy systems. The writers for the series
episodes are international in scope, coming from countries as diverse as the UK,
the USA and the People's Republic of China ("China"), and the series concepts
and scripts are supervised by a prestigious international committee of early
childhood development professionals. The series is animated by Motion Magic
Digital Entertainment Inc. in Shanghai, China. It is the intention of the
Directors that Motion Magic will also play an important role in the development
of the interactive website which is being developed by the Company's own
interactive project management.

Definitions

The following definitions apply throughout this announcement unless the context
requires otherwise:

"AIM"           AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange

"AIM Rules"     The AIM Rules for Companies and the AIM Rules for Nominated
                Advisers, as published by the London Stock Exchange plc from
                time to time

"Board" or      the directors of the Company at the date of this document whose
"Directors" or  names are set out on page 4 of this document
"Ludorum Board"

"Extraordinary  the extraordinary general meeting of Ludorum convened for 9 am
General         on 5 November 2007 to vote on the Resolutions and any
Meeting" or     adjournment thereof
"EGM"

"First          the admission of all of the Ordinary Shares to be issued
Admission"      pursuant to the First Placing (but excluding the Second
                Placing), to trading on AIM and such admission becoming
                effective in accordance with the AIM Rules

"First Placing" the conditional placing by Investec of the First Placing Shares
                at the Placing Price in accordance with the Placing Agreement

"First Placing  new Ordinary Shares to be issued by the Company pursuant to the
Shares"         First Placing

"Investec"      Investec Bank (UK) Limited

"Ludorum" or    Ludorum plc, including, where the context may require, its
the "Company"   subsidiaries and subsidiary undertakings from time to time or
                any of them

"Ordinary       ordinary shares of one pence each in the capital of Ludorum
Shares"

"Placing"       the conditional placings by Investec of the Placing Shares at
                the Placing Price, as agent on behalf of the Company, on the
                terms set out in the Placing Agreement

"Placing        the conditional agreement dated 10 October 2007 entered into
Agreement"      between (1) Ludorum (2) Investec and (3) the Directors in
                relation to the Placing. Further details of which are set out in
                this document

"Placing Price" 100 pence per Placing Share

"Resolutions"   the resolutions to be proposed at the EGM as set out in the
                notice of EGM at the end of this document, to, inter alia,
                approve the increase of the authorised share capital of Ludorum,
                authorise the Directors to allot the Placing Shares and disapply
                pre-emption rights in relation to the allotment of the Placing
                Shares

"Second         the admission of the Ordinary Shares to be issued pursuant to
Admission"      the Second Placing, to trading on AIM and such admission
                becoming effective in accordance with the Placing Agreement

"Second         the conditional placing by Investec of the Second Placing Shares
Placing"        at the Placing Price in accordance with the terms of the Placing
                Agreement

"Second Placing new Ordinary Shares to be issued by the Company pursuant to the
Shares"         Second Placing

"United         the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Kingdom" or
"UK"

"US" or "United the United States of America (including the states of the United
States" or      States and the District of Colombia), its possessions and
"USA"           territories and all areas subject to its jurisdiction

All times refer to GMT unless otherwise stated.

Unless otherwise indicated, all references in this document to "pounds
sterling", "sterling", "#", "pence" or "p" are to the lawful currency of the
United Kingdom; and all references to "$", "US$", or "US dollars" are to the
lawful currency of the United States;









                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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