Avenue HKM acquired by Huntsworth Plc for £1.62m

(13th August 2004, London):  D5 Capital, corporate finance advisors to the creative services industry, have advised Blackwell Publishing Limited on their successful disposal of Avenue HKM, a leading healthcare public relations and medical education consultancy based in London, to Huntsworth PLC, the listed marketing services group led by Lord Chadlington.

Huntsworth have agreed to pay an initial £1.368m in cash and Huntsworth shares and an additional £250,000 in the event that certain conditions are met. Wall House Consulting conducted the sale mandate on behalf of Blackwell Publishing Limited, the leading medical publishing group based in Oxford, UK.

Avenue HKM was formed in January 2000 by the merger of two healthcare communications and medical education agencies - Blackwell Healthcare Communications and Bullet Communications. Avenue HKM's client base includes Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Merck, Pfizer Consumer, Sanofi-Synthelabo, Servier, UCB and Wyeth.

The company will join the PBC Group and VB Communications in the Huntsworth Healthcare division, and will continue under the direction of its existing management team led by Joanna Marchant, Chief Executive Officer. David Rowley,Chief Executive of Huntsworth Healthcare, will join Avenue HKM's board.