Sanoma Corporation, Stock Exchange Release, 6 June 2014 at 9:00 CET+1
Sanoma has come to an agreement with New Skool Media, a specialist media house in the Netherlands, to sell 19 of its Dutch magazine titles. Together with the titles 93 employees (83 FTEs) will transfer to New Skool Media.
As part of the strategic redesign communicated on 31 October 2013, Sanoma announced a significant restructuring in the Netherlands consisting of a magazine portfolio rationalisation and a reduction of approximately 500 FTEs. Sanoma will focus on 17 strong magazine brands and their extensions and specials, growing them in digital media, with e-commerce, events and by cooperating closely with the SBS TV-channels.
Sanoma Media Netherlands and New Skool Media have signed a sale and purchase agreement regarding 19 of the 32 magazine titles that were put under strategic review. The intended deal relates to the following titles: Home and Garden, Seasons, Knipmode, Knippie, MOTO73, MOTOR, Formule1, Truckstar, Babygids, Roots, delicious., Vorsten, KIJK, Know How, ZIN, Fiets, FietsActief, Procycling and Zeilen. The divestment is in line with Sanoma’s strategy to focus its operations and divest selected ownerships.
The transaction is subject to a positive advice of unions and the Works Council and the consent of the licensors involved. In 2013, net sales of the divested titles totalled around EUR 38 million. The transfer of the 19 titles to New Skool Media is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.
Seven titles within the Men’s and Glossy cluster are not part of this transaction and remain under strategic review. Negotiations with interested parties will continue. This process is estimated to be completed by the end of this year.
The remaining six titles of the 32 magazines under strategic review have either been transferred to Sanoma subsidiary Head Office, merged or sold separately (i.e. Helden magazine).
Additional information For media inquiries Sanoma’s Group Communications, Robin Janszen, tel. +31 6 2293 2643 or communications@sanoma.com
Sanoma’s Investor Relations, Olli Turunen, tel. +358 40 552 8907 or ir@sanoma.com
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Sanoma is a front running consumer media and learning company in Europe. In Finland and the Netherlands we are the market leading media company with a broad presence across multiple platforms. Our main markets in learning are Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. In 2013, Sanoma’s net sales totalled EUR 2.1 billion. Sanoma is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki stock exchange.
