Magazine business loses momentum

Tuesday 17th January 2006

Momentum Magazine Group, which had an unsuccessful IPO just over a year ago has gone into liquidation.

The company sought to raise up to $4 million to fund an international expansion of the three magazine titles it then owned � KPI, Her Business, ESPY.

The offer attracted much criticism and attention as the company said it would have a 1750% increase in revenue over three years. However the Securities Commission made Momentum withdraw the offer as it did not comply with regulations.

Momentum was majority owned by David Hows, who earlier had been involved in Richmastery and Entrepreneurs Success Centre property investment businesses.

The company promoted itself as �young and fresh�. In its IPO it said it would roll out 10 magazines in Australia and the United States and a key plank was a series of regional property magazines in Australia and the United States.

Since the IPO Momentum has added two titles in New Zealand, KPI Commercial and Buy A Business and relaunched Espy as IE Magazine. At the launch of IE Magazine in July it touted the magazine as a way �to promote and inspire entrepreneurship.�

IE Magazine � which was essentially a revamp of Espy magazine, �will encourage New Zealand business people to succeed and excel� it said in a press release.

In the release Hows outlined IE�s planned trajectory: �Our goal for IE is to become the leading monthly business title by the time of our first audit in six months time. We will do this through a combination of retail sales and subscriptions.� Momentum no longer owns the magazine.

In September it launched Buy A Business which is described as �New Zealand�s largest circulating monthly business and franchise for sale magazine.�

Just this month it sold Her Business magazine to Matamata-based fashion designer and retailer Annah Stretton for an undisclosed amount.

Momentum also launched a commercial property magazine last year. Originally it was called KPI Commerical, and then it became Commercial Property. The magazine appears to no longer exist as a stand-alone title.

At the time of liquidation Momentum had two magazines, Kiwi Property Investor and Buy A Business.

Both these are now owned by a new company Paper Ventures which is wholly-owned by Hows and operates out of the same premises as Momentum.

ShareChat understands most of the Momentum assets were sold to Paper Ventures before the liquidators they were called in.

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