AirMedia Group -- ready for an IPO takeoff

Posted Oct 21st 2007 10:40AM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: SEC Filings, Marketing and Advertising, China, Nokia Corp. (NOK), Morgan Stanley (MS), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Initial Public Offerings

If you've traveled to China, you've seen the digital TV screens in airplanes and airports. For the most part, it's AirMedia Group that operates the network, which includes more than 18,000 screens.

Now, the company has filed to go public.

In fact, AirMedia controls more than 95% of the digital TV screens for the 15 largest airports in China. And there are deals with nine airlines, which include the three largest in China (China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Air China).

Basically, AirMedia blends advertising content with regular programming, such as news, weather, sports and so on. Although, the advertising portion is about 25 minutes for each hour block.

Currently, AirMedia has about 240 advertising clients, which include big names like Nokia (NYSE: NOK).

Last year, AirMedia posted revenues of $17.9 million and net income of $4.1 million. An as for the first half of 2007, revenues came to $15.9 million and net was $4 million.

The lead underwriters include Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH). The proposed ticker symbol is AMCN.

You can locate the prospectus at the SEC website. Also, if you want to check out other recent IPOs, go to DealProfiles.com.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

Tags: AirMedia, airports, AMCN, arilines, China, DealProfiles.com, IPOs, LEH, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, MS, NOK, Nokia