Hearst UK acquires wellbeing events and watch brands from Telegraph Media Group

February 13, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Hearst UKPublisher Hearst UK has agreed a deal with Telegraph Events to acquire Be:FIT, the UK’s largest and leading fitness and wellbeing festival for women, Salon QP, the UK’s premier luxury watch fair and QP Magazine, the UK’s leading luxury watch magazine. The deal is part of Hearst UK’s strategic commitment to grow and diversify revenues. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Be:FIT, Salon QP and QP Magazine will join a portfolio of brands and events targeting consumers interested in luxury and health & wellness from titles such as Women’s Health, Men’s Health, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and ELLE to events such as Esquire Townhouse, Cosmopolitan Self Made and Country Living Fairs.

Victoria Archbold, Managing Director of Events and Sponsorship at Hearst Live, said: “This deal plays to the strengths of our brands and is a perfect fit for our publishing and events business. We are seeing unprecedented growth in experiential events – our attendance levels doubled last year primarily because our consumers are so engaged in our brands and those we choose to work with. From a commercial perspective, we have created successful collaborations with a number of like-minded brands that have delivered a great return on investment. Expanding our events portfolio will enable us to create more of these brand partnership platforms.”

UK, London

Related articles:

Posted in Conference/Exhibitions/Events, Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, ~Europe. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Euromoney to sell its Global Markets Intelligence Division (CEIC and EMIS)

February 12, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Euromoney plcEuromoney Institutional Investor PLC is to sell its Global Markets Intelligence Division, consisting of CEIC and EMIS, to a consortium of CITIC Capital Partners Management Limited, the private equity arm of CITIC Capital Holdings Limited, and Caixin Global Limited, for an equity value of $180.5 million.  The proceeds, net of transaction costs and tax, are expected to be approximately $145 million. They will be paid in cash on completion.

For the year ended 30 September 2017, GMID reported an operating profit of £11.9 million ($15.1 million). GMID’s gross assets at 30 September 2017 were £45.3 million. The sale is expected to complete by the end of April 2018.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, GMID is a leading provider of macro-economic, company and industry intelligence on emerging markets with a strong customer presence in China, India, Brazil and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as in developed markets.

Andrew Rashbass, CEO of Euromoney, said: “This transaction is another example of Euromoney’s strategy in action: where a good business is not strategic, we will sell it and recycle capital towards our main investment themes like price discovery, asset management and telecoms.  CITIC Capital and Caixin will provide an excellent home for the business, which Aloisio Parente and the whole team have done a fantastic job developing as part of Euromoney.  I am confident that the business will thrive under its new owners.”

citiccapitallogoYichen Zhang, Chairman and CEO of CITIC Capital, said: “We are very excited to make this investment in CEIC and EMIS, which are world-class platforms for macro-economic and business information. Together with Caixin, we look forward to working with the management team to continue growing the business and developing its global customer base.”

As previously reported, last November Citic teamed up with the Asia arm of Baring Private Equity to purchase the Wall Street English educational unit from Pearson Plc for $300 million.

CaixinShuli Hu, Publisher of Caixin Media, Chairwoman of Caixin Global, said:  “We are optimistic about GMID’s business and future.  Caixin will further leverage the rising global influence of China’s economy, and combine state-of-the-art technology with its authoritative information service and data offerings.  We will join forces together with GMID to provide indispensable data and insight for overseas and domestic financial industry professionals and stakeholders.”

UK, London & Hong Kong

Related articles:

 

 

 

Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~Asia, ~Europe. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

Trinity Mirror plc to acquire Northern & Shell’s publishing assets

February 9, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Trinity MirrorTrinity Mirror is to acquire Northern & Shell‘s publishing assets for a total purchase price of £126.7 million. These comprise Northern & Shell Network Limited, a subsidiary of Northern & Shell Media Group Limited containing the publishing assets of Northern & Shell and its subsidiaries, International Distribution 2018 Limited and a 50% equity interest in Independent Star Limited.

The purchase consideration of £126.7 million will be satisfied by the payment to the Northern & Shell Media Group Limited of, in aggregate, an initial cash consideration of £47.7 million; deferred cash consideration of £59.0 million payable over 2020 – 2023; and the balance of £20.0 million by the issue to the Seller of 25,826,746 new ordinary shares of 10p each. Trinity Mirror will also make a one-off cash payment of £41.2 million to the Northern & Shell Pension Schemes and a recovery plan through to 2027 has been agreed with total payments of £29.2 million.

Northern & Shell’s publishing assets include a portfolio of newspapers and magazines which comprise four national newspaper titles (the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday) and three celebrity magazines (OK!, New!, and Star) together with a 50% joint venture interest in the Irish Daily Star, outside the UK. Northern & Shell operates a print plant in Luton, serving its portfolio of newspapers and magazines as well as providing third-party printing services.

The Express.co.uk and Dailystar.co.uk websites achieved 280 million page views in December 2017 compared to 649 million for the Trinity Mirror websites (excluding apps and galleries).

Northern & Shell’s publishing assets performed well in 2017 despite continued pressure on its print advertising revenues. Total revenues (after separation adjustments) are estimated to have marginally increased in 2017, with growth in newspaper circulation revenues (arising from the partial reversal of cover price discounting) and digital revenues offsetting declines in print advertising revenues. Adjusted EBITDA (after separation adjustments) is estimated to be circa. £34 million, benefiting from operational and strategic reductions in printing and production, marketing and other operating costs.

Simon Fox, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, said: “This deal is a really exciting moment in Trinity Mirror’s history, combining some of the most iconic titles in the UK media industry. It is good for our readers, good for our customers and good for our shareholders. Northern and Shell’s titles have a large and loyal readership, a growing digital presence and a stable revenue mix and offer an excellent fit with Trinity Mirror.”

UK, London

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Marketing/Advertising, Publishers, ~Europe. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

The Social Chain Group acquires The Football Republic from FremantleMedia

February 2, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Social Chain GroupSocial media marketing agency and media publishing house The Social Chain Group has acquired a network of sport social media channels, The Football Republic, from FremantleMedia. The deal will see TFR’s brands such as The Full Time Devils become a part of Media Chain – The Social Chain Group’s social media publishing house. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition will increase Media Chain’s sport network reach by more than 2.5 million, taking the company’s global sport network to over 17 million followers, adding to its SPORF network. Launched in 2015 by Shotglass Media, the digital arm of FremantleMedia UK, TFR has built a large fan base with three million followers across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Kat Hebden, managing director at Shotglass Media, said, “We launched The Football Republic because we saw a gap in the market for football entertainment content that served a young, digitally savvy audience. We believe Media Chain will provide a great home for these communities to continue to flourish.”

UK, Manchester & London

Posted in Broadcasting, Content Media, Publishers, ~Europe. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Meredith Corporation completes acquisition of Time Inc.

January 31, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

MeredithMeredith Corporation has completed its acquisition of Time Inc., with February 2018 the first day of operations for the combined company. Time Inc. shareholders received $18.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.8 billion originally announced on 26 November 2017. Meredith also announced fiscal 2018 second quarter and first half results.

Meredith Corporation Chairman and CEO Stephen M. Lacy said, “With this acquisition, we are creating a premier media and marketing company serving 200 million American consumers that’s positioned for growth across industry-leading digital, television, print, video, mobile, and social platforms. The combined portfolio joins the rich content-creation capabilities of many of the media industry’s strongest national brands with a powerful local television business that is generating record earnings.”

USA, New York, NY & Des Moines, Iowa

Related articles

Posted in Broadcasting, Content Media, Internet Media, Marketing/Advertising, Publishers, ~North America. Tags: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Blackstone-led consortium agrees partnership with Thomson Reuters for financial & risk business

January 30, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

 

Thomson ReutersFollowing our earlier reporting on talks between Thomson Reuters and private equity firm Blackstone, the transaction has now been agreed on, with Thomson Reuters to sell a 55% majority stake in its F&R business to private equity funds managed by Blackstone. The transaction values the F&R business at approximately $20 billion. Thomson Reuters will receive approximately $17 billion in gross proceeds at closing (subject to purchase price adjustments) funded by $14 billion of debt and preferred equity to be incurred by the partnership and a $3 billion cash equity contribution by Blackstone. Thomson Reuters will retain a 45% interest in the F&R business. Thomson Reuters will also maintain full ownership of its Legal, Tax & Accounting and the Reuters News businesses. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and GIC will invest alongside Blackstone for the transaction.

The F&R business provides a broad range of offerings to financial market professionals. Its global content sets include fundamentals, estimates and primary and secondary research. F&R also provides customers with tools, platforms, venues and services to enable fast, intelligent decision-making. The businesses that will comprise the new F&R partnership had 2017 revenues of approximately $6 billion.

At the closing of the proposed transaction, F&R and Reuters News will sign a 30-year agreement for Reuters to supply news and editorial content to the new partnership. Under the agreement, F&R will pay Reuters a minimum of $325 million annually. For the duration of the news contract, Thomson Reuters will grant F&R a license to permit F&R to brand its information feeds and products/services with the “Reuters” mark, subject to applicable limitations and restrictions set forth in a trademark license agreement.

Jim Smith, president and chief executive officer of Thomson Reuters, said, “This deal strengthens F&R and should accelerate its growth and benefit its customers across the sell-side, buy-side and trading venues. Blackstone’s strong relationships in the financial services industry and long and successful history of corporate partnerships will help F&R provide new and innovative products and services, drive further efficiencies and navigate ongoing industry consolidation.”

Canada, Toronto, Ontario & USA, New York, NY

Related articles:

Posted in Market Data & Information, News, Private Equity, Publishers, ~North America. Tags: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Blackstone in advanced discussions to buy stake in key Thomson Reuters unit

January 30, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Thomson ReutersPrivate equity firm Blackstone is in advanced discussions with Thomson Reuters to buy an approximate 55 percent stake in the Financial and Risk (F&R) business of Thomson Reuters Corp. for more than $17 billion. According to reporting by Reuters, Thomson Reuters would receive around $4 billion in cash and $13 billion financed by new debt taken on by the new F&R partnership. It would value the unit at about $20 billion.

The F&R business provides a broad range of offerings to financial markets professionals, with $6.1 billion in revenues in 2016. F&R delivers global content sets, including fundamentals, estimates and primary and secondary research alongside tools, platforms, venues and services to enable fast, intelligent decision-making and trading. F&R also provides regulatory and risk management solutions to help customers anticipate and manage risk and compliance.

In an announcement, Thomson Reuters said, “As part of any proposed partnership, Thomson Reuters would retain a significant interest in the F&R business and would retain full ownership of its Legal, Tax & Accounting and Reuters News businesses”.

Canada, Toronto, Ontario & USA, New York, NY

Related articles:

 

Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, News, Private Equity, Publishers, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Terrapinn acquires Science Media Partners

January 30, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

terrapinnTerrapinn, the global events company, has acquired Science Media Partners, an international events and publishing company based in the UK and focused on next-generation government, citizen and consumer-based identity solutions. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

SMP’s portfolio of products includes the world-leading events – SDW 2018 and connect:ID – as well as the highly-respected news and information web portals – http://www.planetbiometrics.com and www.securitydocumentworld.com .

Terrapinn’s CEO, Greg Hitchen, said: “Science Media Partners fits really well with our enterprise technology portfolio and our style of event. There is also a strong cultural and entrepreneurial fit. And the events are world-class.”

UK, London

 

Posted in Conference/Exhibitions/Events, Content Media, Publishers, ~Europe. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

KHL Group acquires Diesel & Gas Turbine Publications

January 29, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

KHL GroupGlobal construction information publisher KHL Group is acquiring the USA-based publisher Diesel & Gas Turbine Publication Group. USA-based D&GTP, founded in 1935 and located in Wisconsin, is a leading publisher of information for the on-highway, off-highway, stationary and marine engine-powered equipment markets. It focuses on the construction and agriculture, power generation and commercial vehicle equipment sectors through its North American magazine Diesel Progress and globally through Diesel Progress International. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

D&GTP directors Mike Osenga and Mike Brezonick have built an international reputation for their magazines, directories and websites. They will continue to lead the company while working closely with Trevor Pease, KHL Americas’ President and James King, Managing Director of KHL Group.

James King explained, “This is a fantastic opportunity for KHL to grow by acquiring three market leading publications, digital media and directories. Diesel Progress has a great brand, great heritage and is run by great people. We will build upon the company’s clear strengths and make it even stronger. Massive technological and environmental changes are underway in the design of engine powered equipment. A trusted source of global information is needed now more than at any time in the past.”

UK, Wadhurst & USA, Waukesha, WI

Posted in Content Media, Publishers, ~Europe, ~North America. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Nextmedia acquires The Women’s Game website

January 23, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

NextmediaThe Australian publishing company Nextmedia, part of the Forum Media Group, has acquired the female sports coverage website The Women’s Game. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Originally, the site was largely focused on football, but after its relaunch on 1 February 2018, will cover Australian women’s sport across multiple disciplines including football, netball, cricket, AFL and rugby. The target market for The Women’s Game is active players and young athletes who are looking to participate in the professional leagues of women’s sports. It was started by legal professional and football fan Ann Odong in 2008, when she found there was lack of coverage in mainstream media about the W-League and Matildas.

Kevin Airs, digital head of sports at Nextmedia, said, “There has been a huge rise in the professionalisation of women’s team sport, which has corresponded with an equal increase in the standard played, generating far more interest among fans and inspiring more people to get involved themselves. We want to be a part of that and be part of raising the profile of women’s sport, as well as the standard of reporting it.”

Australia, St Leonard’s, NSW & Brisbane, QL

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, News, Publishers, ~Oceana. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a Comment »
« Older posts
Newer posts »