The recently appointed chief executive of media group Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) begins to implement his strategy for the company in earnest selling 32.5m of the company’s shares in specialist publisher Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) at 975p.
NO SACRED COWS
Paul Zwillenberg revealed alongside full year results (1 Dec) that there were ‘no sacred cows’ as he conducted a review of company’s portfolio of assets. The decision to take its holding from 67% to 49%, executed through a placing and Euromoney buying back its own shares, nets the Daily Mail £315m. Its shares are down 0.6% at 787p, Euromoney falls 5.4% to £10.60.
ACQUISITION TRAIL
Liberum analyst Ian Whittaker reckons DMGT will hit the acquisition trail in the near-term. ‘Given DMGT's comments in the past that it made sense to own either 100pc of Euromoney or to sell its stake - but not to stay at its then present stake - it suggests that DMGT may look to sell down more of its stake in the future, with the ERM stake (worth £704m for the 49pc stake as a % of market cap) being used as a funding pot for future deals,’ he says.
UP FOR SALE
Based on Zwillenberg’s latest presentation to analysts Whittaker reckons the DMG Information assets and MailOnline are core to the future of the business and outside of this list any of the company’s other businesses could be sold.
