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Ki-Bi Mobile Technologies Ltd: First Day of Dealings on the Alternative Investment MarketLONDON --(Business Wire)-- May 5, 2005 -- The Board of Ki-Bi Mobile Technologies Ltd. ("Ki-Bi" or "the Company"), a company which provides innovative technological solutions for the physical distribution of content to mobile users announces that the Company's shares have today been admitted to trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange ("AIM"). The Company's trading symbol is "KIB". 10,204,076 new ordinary shares have been allocated to institutional and other investors at a price of 98 pence per share (the "Placing Price"), raising approximately GBP 10 million (before expenses) for the Company. On admission to AIM a total of 10,191,025 ordinary shares were in issue capitalising the Company at approximately GBP 20 million at the Placing Price. Collins Stewart is the Company's Nominated Adviser and broker. NOTES TO EDITORS Company Overview Ki-Bi provides innovative technological solutions for physical distribution and marketing of content and applications for mobile handsets. The Company's business model is based upon the sale of electronic content cards ("Cards") and sharing of the revenues from the content distributed through the Cards. Ki-Bi has been a portfolio company of Siemens Acceleration since September 2003. Content, such as ringtones, music, video and games for mobile handsets, is currently distributed mainly by over-the-air downloads into handsets, but there are technological, logistic and marketing barriers to traditional physical distribution of such content via retail outlets. Ki-Bi provides a solution for the physical distribution of mobile content based on a combination of proprietary consumer electronics devices and central management server systems. Ki-Bi's Cards enable flexibility for customisation and production in mass volumes, elements which the Directors consider are essential in brand differentiation and content promotion. During the past two years, Ki-Bi has established relationships with global leaders in the mobile market such as Ericsson, Orange, O2 and others. Overall Market Development The are now more than 1.5 billion mobile phone users worldwide, predicted to increase to more than 2 billion in 2007. The mobile content market for personalisation, entertainment and information is expected to grow from approximately $26 billion in 2005 to $91.8 billion in 2009. The key drivers for the growth of the mobile content market are: -- Increase in the global subscriber base - to 2 billion in 2007; -- Strong handset sales - reported at more than 150 million per quarter worldwide in 2004; -- Advanced handsets - handsets are increasingly offering richer features such as colour screens and polyphonic ringtones; -- Advanced networks - most network operators have now deployed advanced data networks capable of content streaming and download; -- Operators' content strategy - network operators outside Japan have declared content and entertainment at the centre of their strategies to increase ARPU and reduce churn; and -- Strategies of traditional entertainment publishers - leading media companies involved in films, music and games are developing branded content specifically for mobile users. Ki-Bi aims to take advantage of all of these drivers through products which are attractive to handset manufacturers, network operators and content publishers. Key advantages of Ki-Bi's Technology Companies seeking to exploit the mobile content market face several limitations inherent to the existing virtual channels used to sell content. The Directors believe that these challenges include: Mass market visibility - there is a huge quantity of content on the web in virtual space. Visibility of these services is low, and customer awareness and usage level for independent and specific content categories is limited as a result. Even in the best of portals, content that is not in prime portal locations may not achieve high sales. User experience - the user experience of downloading content is, in most cases, far from attractive and intuitive. The small screen size on most phones also dictates that even in the case of a more successful user interface, only a small amount of the vast content available receives high user attention. Support of branded content - premium branded content such as film, sports and music assets are successful sellers in the mobile space. However, much of the physical attraction of the brands is lost in the small screen space. The Directors believe that premium content is most attractive when you can offer customers a physical object, using the visual attributes of the brand, and playing on the emotional attachment between the mass market and desirable content properties. The Directors believe that Ki-Bi's Cards address all of these limitations, by providing mass market visibility, a positive user experience and strong branding opportunities for content owners. The Company has not discovered any company that develops an electronic device which directly competes with the Ki-Bi product in the mobile environment and has not heard otherwise from leading players in the mobile content market. Ki-Bi provides a new physical dimension to mobile content and the Directors' believe that the Ki-Bi Card provides an experience unlike any other in the market today. |
