Chrysalis prepares for growth in 2008.

Group aims to bolster existing portfolios, following sale of radio division

The slimmed-down Chrysalis Group is examining a number of "potential acquisitions" in music publishing and artist management as it considers its strategy without any radio interests.

The group last week revealed its first set of accounts following the July sale of Chrysalis Radio, which showed that the music division is performing well with Ebita increasing 28.2% to #3.1m for the year ended August 31, on revenues down on 2006, at #35.1m.

Chrysalis chief executive Jeremy Lascelles believes this performance - overall continuing Chrysalis operations made an Ebita loss of #3.0m, although that contained a one-off #3.0m redundancy cost - is a reflection of the quality of copyrights the company has.

"We have a fantastic new David Gray album and, in the new year, releases from Gnarls Barkley, Feeder and Portishead," he says.

Lascelles also points to the continuing success of the "incubation" model it created - with The Echo Label, which now boasts nine acts including Ray LaMontagne, Forever Like Red and Bat For Lashes - as providing consistent and solid growth.

"That is a model we devised and it seems to work," adds Lascelles, pointing to the success of LaMontagne and Bat For Lashes, who were licensed up to Warner Music and Parlophone respectively. "I think we would want to only do four or five in a year, that seems to be about right because there ...