Just Group, the intellectual rights and merchandising company that specialises in children’s entertainment, is set to launch its Butt Ugly Martians cartoon series in the US after signing a lucrative licensing deal with Nickelodeon, the world’s biggest cable network for children. Just Group, the intellectual rights and merchandising company that specialises in children’s entertainment, is set to launch its Butt Ugly Martians cartoon series in the US after signing a lucrative licensing deal with Nickelodeon, the world’s biggest cable network for children.
Shares in the group leapt 8 per cent after it said it expected to sign more than 50 merchandising licences on the back of the deal. Over 80 million US households watch Nickelodeon, which is owned by the media giant Viacom.Wilf Shorrocks, Just Group’s chief executive, said: “In monetary and meaningful terms this is the largest deal we’ve ever done. The chief executive of Hasbro [toys] has said that the Butt Ugly Martians are the next Ninja Turtles.”Mr Shorrocks said that the deal was worth a significant “seven-figure” sum in terms of the AIM-listed group, which has seen its profits explode from £3,000 to £1.2m in the year to April.The series features B Bop-A-Luna, Do-Wah-Diddy and 2T-Fru-T, three Martians who defied orders from their evil emperor to conquer Earth after falling for its culture.Shares in Just Group closed up 0.69p at 9.12p.. Christopher Cundell, a director of a Skipton-based firm of independent financial advisers, has been expelled by the Personal Investment Authority for forging a client’s signature. Christopher Cundell, a director of a Skipton-based firm of independent financial advisers, has been expelled by the Personal Investment Authority for forging a client’s signature.
One of Mr Cundell’s clients made a complaint about the firm, Wilman & Lodge, to the PIA ombudsman, which then requested documents from Mr Cundell. He subsequently forged the complainant’s signature on the documents.The PIA yesterday declined to elaborate on the details of the offence.

In a statement it said: “Mr Cundell has ceased to be fit and proper because he submitted a document … on to which he had fraudulently transposed an investor’s signature. The forgery was undertaken without the authority of the client and with the ultimate objective of seeking to ensure that the client’s claim to the Ombudsman would not succeed.”Mr Cundell is the second person to lose registration with the PIA this year.. Merrill Lynch, the giant US investment bank, is to cut back its UK small-companies market-making operations.

Merrill Lynch, the giant US investment bank, is to cut back its UK small-companies market-making operations. From today, the bank will cease to offer spreads on 100 shares, of which 47 are believed to be listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), London’s secondary market.
Merrill Lynch, which makes markets in 1,300 London Stock Exchange-listed companies, yesterday insisted that it was not cutting back its operations.”We are not reducing our exposure. This is part of an ongoing process of adjusting our stock-trading universe,” a spokesman for the bank said. However, when pushed on what determines which stocks the bank covers, Merrill Lynch admitted it was a question of “client interest and trading volumes”.Brokers covering companies with small market capitalisations have had a particularly tough time of lateamid the current stock market downturn. Volumes have plummeted as private investors, burned by the collapse of the New Economy bubble, have turned their backs on smaller-company shares.Chris Potts, director of market-making at Winterflood Securities, was not surprised by the cuts at Merrill Lynch. “There are currently too many players in the small-cap market-making universe chasing too little business.