Spain’s Zinkia in administration

Pocoyo’s Madrid-based brand owner Zinkia Entertainment has gone into administration, marking the latest kids IP firm to go under as Spain’s economic woes bite.

Zinkia was unable to renegotiate terms of a €2.5 million (US$3.4 million) loan with a private lender despite agreeing other refinancing deals with bondholders, banks and commercial creditors and went into administration a week ago.

“Zinkia continues to negotiate with different creditors and potential investors in order to find a solution which will allow it to come out of administration as quickly as possible with the least damage to its brands,” said a company statement issued to Reuters.

Zinkia’s shares on the Spanish stock market, which have nosedived in the past year, have been suspended.

The firm’s key asset, preschool series Pocoyo, was internationally coproduced and first ran on Spanish net Clan TV and ITV in the UK before selling around the world. Zinkia also owns a majority stake in UK-based kids distributor Cake Entertainment.