INM completes Verivox stake sale
Tuesday December 08 2009
Independent News and Media (INM) has sold its stake in the German website Verivox for €18.3m.
The 49pc stake in Verivox, an online price comparator for energy and telecom services, has been bought by a subsidiary of Oakley Capital Private Equity, VVX Investments.
INM said the price paid includes the repayment of a €2.3m loan from Verivox to INM, which must be repaid by the end of March 2010. INM is also due a further €1m next year if Verivox achieves profit targets for 2009.
The initial cash payment of €16m will be used to pay down INM's debt, in line with the strategy the company set out earlier this year. The remaining net proceeds of €2.3m will be received during 2010 assuming certain conditions are met.
The net proceeds from the deal means that INM's investment in Verivox has more than tripled since 2006.
Oakley Capital, a private equity group, has acquired the site. Oakley is to buy a further 2pc of the company.
INM Outdoor, INM's advertising business based in South Africa, will also be disposed of by the end of the year.
The company said total proceeds raised by disposals this year will be around €150m, meeting the target it set for 2009.
Target
"The completion of the disposal of Verivox, together with that of INM Outdoor, will bring the total proceeds raised from disposals by INM in 2009 to approximately €150m, fulfilling the target originally set out by the company earlier this year to raise that amount for deleveraging purposes by means of the divestiture of non-strategic core assets or of those assets whose disposal will not impact adversely on the existing operating divisions," the company said.
INM reiterated that the disposal strategy, together with the completion later this month of the group's restructuring, will reduce overall borrowing by €350m.
"This will provide a stable and secure financial platform from which to leverage the group's businesses as economic conditions recover," the company added.
Verivox, which initially focused on the telecoms market before switching its main efforts to energy, is one of the main players in the German price- comparison market.
- Maeve Dineen
Irish Independent
