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SMD Publshing is still trying to keep a low profile, but has now revealed its true identity. It’s registered a domain name, smdpublishing.co.uk, and here are the interesting registration details.

Domain name:

smdpublishing.co.uk

Registrant:

Remnant Media

Registrant type:

UK Individual

Registrant’s address:

The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their address omitted from the WHOIS service.

So although they’ve been rather naughty by claiming they’re an individual and refusing to provide an address, Remnant Media has finally given us proof that they’re behind the purchase of Front, Hotdog and DVD World. Assuming, of course, that someone hasn’t just filed a claim for the domain name as a bit of shrewd cybersquatting and put Remnant down as the owners for the Hell of it (Nominet doesn’t do much by way of checking domain name applications).

Potential visitors to The International Woodworking Exhibition 2006 will be delighted to hear that it’s to go ahead on the 17-19th February 2006 as planned. How do we know? Because Encanta Media is sending out emails to let everyone know. Apart from text at the bottom (written in black on a black background) about various matters to do with administration, we get confirmation that Owen Davies is the managing director of Encanta Media:

The Joint Administrative Receviers contract only as agents of the Company without personal liability.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales authorises M.E Mills to act as Insolvency Practitioner under section 390(2)(a) of the Insolvency Act 1986 and The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants authorises R Bailey to act as an Insolvency Practitioner under section 390(2)(a) of the Insolvency Act 1986.

The Yorkshire Post has managed to piece together the details of the Encanta/Brush Colour deal. Note the fact that a former Ernst & Young practitioner is behind Endless, the buy-out firm involved.

PS If you have problems with the link, go to the home page of the Yorkshire Post‘s site, then look through the business section.

We’re getting some potential names for the backers of SMD and Encanta now. It looks like SMD is a company set up by Remnant Media so that it can keep the likes of Front and Hotdog separate from its other titles. Meanwhile, Owen Davies, former financial director of Highbury, is being fingered as one of the names behind Encanta. All of this is just rumour at the moment, but I hope to firm things up.

This situation with SMD is looking mighty familiar. Yesterday, they didn’t show up at all in a Companies House search, except as a dissolved company. Today, the paperwork has made its way through the Companies House bureaucracy and we have some new info.

It’s all beginning to look very familiar:

Date of incorporation

Brush Colour: 8th December 2005

SMD Publishing: 6th December 2005

Name changes

Brush Colour: Changed name to Encanta Media Ltd on 20th January 2006 (the same day it made its Highbury acquisition)

SMD Publishing: Changed name from Astroplan Ltd on 23rd January 2006 (the same day it made its Highbury acquisition)

Appointments

Brush Colour: Registered through companies (“YORK PLACE COMPANY SECRETARIES LIMITED”, “YORK PLACE COMPANY NOMINEES LIMITED”)

SMD Publishing: Registered through companies (“ACI SECRETARIES LIMITED”, “ACI DIRECTORS LIMITED”)

Looks like someone’s been passing around the company acquisition cheat notes.

Can’t find any reference to SMD Publishing down at Companies House. Well, that’s not true actually: there’s an S.M.D. Publishing listed as having been dissolved in October 1999. No companies of similar current or proposed names are listed.

Assuming that’s the right name, for SMD not to be listed, it would have to be a sole trader or something similar (hence the lack of the Ltd monicker at the end of its name). But no one would buy Hotdog or Front without some kind of safety net, would they, unless the plan is to sell them on to a Ltd company at a later date?

It’s all very mysterious.

UPDATE: One of the names behind SMD may be Simon Robinson, co-founder of Remnant, although that’s just a rumour at this stage.

ADDITIONAL UPDATE: The Media Guardian reports that DVD World went to SMD as well.

Press Gazette has the news first, this time: Hotdog and Front have been sold off to new company SMD Publishing. Notable nugget of information:

It was confirmed today, the company’s remaining craft titles have been sold to another new company, Brush Colour.

Accountancy firm Ernst & Young, which has been overseeing the company’s breakup since it went into receivership, said it could reveal no further details about SMD and Brush Colour, although it is believed they could consist of staff or previous management from the titles.

All the deals put together very quickly, huh? The fact that the confirmation is for Brush Colour, rather than Encanta Media, speaks volumes about the new owners not wanting to be named. And I wonder what happened to Remnant, last heard of doing their due diligence over the weekend.

UPDATE: The Media Guardian reports that DVD World went to SMD as well.

As discussed on Friday, the mysterious Brush Colour has bought Highbury’s specialist titles. Now Companies House is open again, we can get a few more details on the company. They were only incorporated on the 8th December last year, just a fortnight before Highbury’s difficulties became public knowledge. Equally strangely, they changed their name on Friday to Encanta Media Ltd.

Now I’m not saying there’s anything fishy going on, but the two company appointments listed on their appointments report are “YORK PLACE COMPANY SECRETARIES LIMITED” and “YORK PLACE COMPANY NOMINEES LIMITED”. Looks like the new owners wants to stay anonymous for the moment, at the very least.

Press Gazette has picked up on Damian Butt’s letter to me. Which is nice.

Incidentally, it’s been intimated to me by various sources that since Imagine has only acquired the brands, rather than the limited company, that means there probably won’t be any provision for paying creditors.

For both selfish and altruistic reasons, I’m hoping freelances like me may be the exception rather than the rule. Anyone from Imagine want to clear up whether the titles’ freelances will get paid for their work? The last article in Press Gazette on the subject didn’t fill me with confidence, since it suggested we’d get as little as 10% of our outstanding invoices, but I always live in hope.