Just Group shares rise on Jellikins deal in US

Shares in Just Group, the intellectual rights and merchandising company that specialises in the children's market, jumped nearly 10 per cent yesterday after it announced a deal to broadcast a prime-time show featuring the Jellikins in the US.

Shares in Just Group, the intellectual rights and merchandising company that specialises in the children's market, jumped nearly 10 per cent yesterday after it announced a deal to broadcast a prime-time show featuring the Jellikins in the US.

The Jelly Telly Show will be aired for 30 minutes every school day for the next 15 months on the Fox Family Channel, part of Rupert Murdoch's Fox empire.

The AIM-listed Just Group, which has seen its profits explode from £3,000 to £1.2m in the year to April, said it expects to reap up to £10m in merchandising licences from the deal.

The TV show will mainly feature the Jellikins, the teddy-bear like creatures that live in the middle of a jelly sea. The creatures, known as Jellabies outside the UK, have already been seen in the United States.

Just Group finance director Graham Calderbank said: "This deal will enable Jellabies to be shown at a far more prime-time slot. We already have a deal worth $3.5m in initial royalties. We expect that to at least double in the next year."

Of Just's stable of children's programmes, only Jellikins has appeared so far in the UK. Two new programmes, Macdonald's Farm and Butt-Ugly Martians, will appear later this year on GMTV and CITV.

Shares in Just Group closed up 1p at 10.25p.