Update:
I got the banking syndicate wrong. It's First Marathon (Lead), CIBC Wood Gundy (they have US offices) and Yorkton.
It will start trading on June 5-6th, somewhere around there.
As for profitability, they actually did earn money last year, which is rare for a fast growing, new company. It wasn't much, but then again they depreciate all the equipment they buy in one year.
I believe the earnings are as follows, with my estimates:
96 97 98
Revenues(C$) 9.4mil $19.5 $28-35
EBITDA .9 9.2 12-20
Net Inc -.3 .2 4-10
Estimates are tough because there's always numerous new projects.
But is safe to say they are growing very rapidly and ought to be able to keep that up. Their production techniques are quicker and cheaper then competitors which drives the econimics of their projects and allows them to get partial ownership of the properties --a big driver to future value.
I believe Pixar had revs last year of 38mil, EBITDA of 33mil, net of 25 for 1996 and estimated rev of 25, EBITDA of 23 and net of 11.5 for 1997. Pixar has a market cap of around US$ 750mil. Mainframe will be at around US$100 million. No doubt, Pixar's a great company and having Disney on your side helps immensely. There's clearly room for 3-5 good 3D CGI houses given the demand for high quality animation entertainment. More than anything, the Disney/Pixar association shows the value of companies like Pixar, Mainframe, Pacific Digital Images etc...
I would imagine Mainframe will be working on all sorts of projects over the next 5 years, and they'll be able to get a bit of ownership, just like Pixar. Pixar and Mainframe pursue CGI animation differently, but both of them are way ahead of the others in actually being able to show many minutes of fully rendered 3D CGI. I think Pixar produced 90 minutes with Toy Story over the last few years and Mainframe has produced over 800 minutes of fully rendered CGI in the last 12 months. Obviously TV rendering has a less detail than big screen, but the output is nonetheless prodigious.
I've heard great things about ReBoot season 3. I believe it's darker and more funky, appealing to the 13-30 year olds.
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