Otava partners up with Rights & Brands
Otava Publishing Company Ltd has become a minority shareholder in Rights & Brands, officially R & B Licensing AB.
Rights & Brands was founded in Spring 2016, working closely with its partners Moomin Characters and Bulls Licensing (Bulls Press AB), building on a long and successful collaborative licensing business, bringing Nordic rights to an international market. Rights & Brands is aiming to be one of the largest Nordic agencies, representing literary rights and brands like Moomin, Mamma Moo and Little Anna to a global network.
Otava is the largest book publisher in Finland with a publishing history spanning over 125 years. Otava Group Agency has successfully sold worldwide foreign rights of books by Finnish authors like Mauri Kunnas, Aino Havukainen, Sami Toivonen, Riikka Pulkkinen and Kati Hiekkapelto just to name a few. With the transaction, Otava Group Agency and its staff has been transferred to Rights & Brands.
Simultaneously with the transaction Mauri Kunnas, one of the internationally most well-known and widely published Finnish children’s book authors, has signed Rights & Brands as his agent for foreign rights and international licensing.
”The international appeal of Finnish literature has never been as strong as it is now, and at Otava we wish to do our utmost to take the books by our authors into the hands of readers all around the world. Together with Rights & Brands we aim to create a superb new era agency that represents the best of Nordic authors bringing all our international networks, sales skills and passion for literature into their service”, says Otava’s Publishing Director Minna Castrén.
”With its modern business perspective, complete chain of operations and as a true cultural carrier, Otava is the perfect partner for Rights & Brands”, says Margareta Steinsvik, Chairman of the Board, Rights & Brands.
”The Moomin brand has been sold globally for over 60 years. I’m excited that we can broaden the repertoire by also selling other Finnish character rights internationally”, says Sophia Jansson, Chairman of the Board at Moomin Characters, one of Rights & Brands’ partners.
“Today we are especially happy to welcome Mauri Kunnas to join the family of authors represented internationally by R&B”, says Jansson.