Sports Stars Media to announce AIM float

A sports cartoon business with exclusive rights to use the image of Portuguese football manager José Mourinho is set to announce its intention to float tomorrow.

Sports Stars Media, a sports personality animation business based in Portugal, plans to list on AIM in February, raising £1.75m. This would take its market capitalisation to £3.75m.

The group is meeting potential investors in London and will be marketing its plans to produce cartoon sports series for children's TV.

The first series will be called Mourinho & the Special Ones – a play on the Real Madrid manager's nickname. SSM, which also wants to license merchandise from the series, has the rights to use Mourinho's image for the purposes of developing and marketing the CGI animation.

The directors of SSM are banking on the fact that television production costs are cheaper in Portugal compared with North America, where many of the production houses for children's cartoons are based.

Two of SSM's directors have produced the children's CGI animation series Gombby's Green Island, which has been broadcast in Portugal since early last year.