Roularta to sell seven French magazines to tycoon Patrick Drahi

Roularta Media NV

08/01/2015 13:59

PARIS, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Belgian publisher Roularta Media 
Group  RLRT.BR  said it would negotiate exclusively with French 
businessman Patrick Drahi towards a sale of seven magazines 
including newsweekly L'Express. 
    Vivendi  VIV.PA  and newspaper Le Figaro had also expressed 
interest in the titles, but Drahi, who is the controlling 
shareholder of telecoms group Altice  ATCE.AS , won out. 
 ID:nL6N0TT2RS  
    No financial details were disclosed in the statement on 
Thursday. 
    Drahi has been on an acquisition spree in the past year that 
has included multi-billion euro buyouts of France's second 
biggest telecoms company SFR and Portugal Telecom, as well as a 
smaller investment in French left-wing daily newspaper 
Liberation. 
    He is working with Mark Laufer, a radio and TV executive, on 
the acquisition of Roularta's French titles. 
    The deal would include the magazines L'Express, L'Expansion, 
Mieux Vivre Votre Argent, Lire, Classica, Pianiste and Studio 
Cine Live, as well as the websites of L'Entreprise, Job 
Rencontres and Distrijob. 
    Roularta bought roughly ten French magazines in 2006 for 
about 210 million euros ($247.11 million), but the titles' 
profitability and circulation dropped significantly since then. 
The Belgian publisher will keep some French magazines, including 
L'Etudiant and Point de Vue. 
    The company earned three-quarters of its revenues of 676 
million euros last year from printed media. 
    Trading in Roularta shares, which had been suspended on 
Wednesday, resumed on Thursday afternoon following the company's 
statement. They were down 2.4 percent to 11.49 euros at 1355 
GMT.  
  
($1 = 0.8498 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Leila Abboud; Editing by Vincent Baby) 
 ((leila.abboud@thomsonreuters.com; +33 1 49 49 51 82; Reuters 
Messaging: leila.abboud.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; Twitter: 
@labboudles)) 
 
Keywords: ROULARTA MEDIA M&A/