Sophia : World International Trading is gathering speed

While it has become PromoRepubliC.com S.A, the French leader in the distribution of advertising items, expects to raise 90 million francs and to get the means to tackle the European market.

World International Trading, the company from Sophia Antipolis, and the French leader in the distribution of advertising items on Internet, has become PromoRepubliC.com S.A.. Thus, it has announced its European ambitions. The Limited Liability Company, founded by François-Pierre Lepage, was taken over one month ago, by a public limited company, the major shareholder of which is François-Pierre Lepage with Benoît de Maulmin, one of the cofounders of Infogrammes, and with a third person whose name has still not been divulged (from a great international group, he or she will be in charge of the executive board).A first round of table of 40 million francsWhy are we resorting to such great manipulations ? 'Investors prefer the legal form of the public limited company, François-Pierre Lepage explains. We wanted to anticipate the round of table that is under way and that should allow to raise 40 million francs, before summer. At the beginning, we had planned to raise 90 million francs, but due to the great troubles the Internet values are currently experiencing, we have to make the operation in two stages. The second reason is to get a name that fits more our activity'.'However, nothing has changed in our organization. The registered office will remain in Sophia Antipolis as well as all the research and development (17 people are working on the technopole, and the staff should reach 23 people in July 2000). The company can already be financially self-supporting, especially through World Multimedia that will go on creating websites under its brand name. But, we wished we could reach immediately a European scale. Thus, the rise in funds will be used to get the competing structures in order to gain time and to set up more quickly in Europe, first in Germany and then in Great Britain. With France, Germany and Great Britain are two countries representing a 50 billion franc market of advertising items. Moreover, we have just opened an office in London'.A new site is developingPromoRepubliC.com is also right in the middle of the computer development. The limited company is perfecting a new platform that will allow to make immediate 3D models, instantaneous quotations, and on-line aid. It particularly wants to ensure a complete interaction between the Internet structure and the assistants who guide the customer inside the site, so that he can choose the products in a better way. Thus, it would like to supply a complete service of e-commerce from its site www.promorepublic.com, where an on-line booklet will be offered, including a complete system for the estimate offer, the reception of orders, and the direct secured settlement on Internet.Thus, for François-Pierre Lepage, this is a new start, but at a European scale that time. For three years, he has been looking for revitalising a market coming from the old economy (the market of sales of advertising items on booklets), while he has been basing on the Internet performances…