Hit picks up a penguin

Pingu, the playful penguin character, is to be bought by British children’s entertainment firm Hit in a £15.9m deal, it was announced today.

Hit Entertainment, which is also behind Bob the Builder and Barney the Dinosaur, is buying rights to the character - including 104 five-minute episodes and a half-hour special - from a number of European media firms.

Chief executive Rob Lawes said the firm had been trying to obtain Pingu for three years, and said the show had been ‘‘totally under-exploited’’.

‘‘By the time we have put Pingu thorough our infrastructure we believe it will be substantially more valuable than the £15.9m we paid, in five years time,’’ he said.

The deal came as Hit said its earnings, before interest tax and depreciation, for the year to July 31 rose from £7.3mto £16.4m.

Bottom-line profits at the group, however, fell to £2.8m from £4.5m after the group changed its accounting to US standards and included one-off charges.

Hit, which last year bought Barney creator Lyrick Studios in a £189m deal, added turnover rose from £20.7 million to £52.3m.

And Hit added despite the period of economic uncertainty, the prospects for the company continued to be strong.

Mr Lawes said the market in which Hit operated tended to be more resistant to recession.

‘‘You are not going to see three-year-olds not having a Barney video because of what happened on September 11. As far as parents are concerned, they may not take holidays but they will still buy a video for their children.’’

Shares in the firm rose 3% following the announcement, up 10p to 356p.