Roundup: Japan's Nikkei to buy FT Group for 1.3 bln dollars

Japan's media company Nikkei Inc. is to acquire the FT Group from British publisher Pearson Plc for 844 million pounds, or 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in cash, ending the market rumors about the new ownership of the global news organization.

Boosted by the news, Pearson's share price on London Stock Exchange closed 2.07 percent higher than its previous close on Thursday.

PACKAGED ASSETS

The deal comprises the Financial Times newspaper, FT.com and FTChinese.com, and titles such as The Banker and Investors Chronicle, but excludes the FT Group's London property in central London and the Economist stake, announced Pearson Thursday.

For the past few weeks Pearson has been exploring a sale of FT Group, which comprises the Financial Times, a number of related titles and a 50 percent stake in Economist Group, publisher of the Economist magazine.

Pearson said that in 2014, FT Group contributed 334 million pounds of sales and 24 million pounds of adjusted operating income to Pearson. On 30 June 2015, FT Group had gross assets of approximately 250 million pounds.

At the FT, total circulation across print and digital rose more than 30 percent over the last five years to 737,000, with digital circulation growing to represent 70 percent of the total, from 24 percent, and mobile driving almost half of all traffic. Content and services now account for the majority of revenues, said the publisher.

The FT has an editorial team of 500 journalists in more than 50 locations around the world. It was first published as a four-page newspaper in 1888 and was bought by Pearson in 1957.

BIDDING COMPETITION

"A contribution will be made to the Pearson group pension plan following closing of the transaction, expected to be around 90 million pounds. In addition, Pearson has committed to fund the pension plan to self-sufficiency in the near term," said Pearson.

Earlier this week, US-based media Bloomberg reported that Pearson is seeking to sell FT Group to Axel Springer SE as well as investors in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

"The offer from the Japanese group trumped rival interest from Germany's Axel Springer which has been in talks in recent week with Pearson," reported FT Thursday.

Chris Beauchamp, Senior Market Analyst at London-based financial company IG, commented in a note: "Nikkei had not been viewed as one of the primary contenders, but with sales in retreat in its home markets the group evidently decided a bold stroke was needed... It is the end of an era, but the sale will give them the funds to expand its education division."

Nikkei is one of Japanese largest publishers with annual sales of around one billion pounds.

GLOBAL, DIGITAL

The direct benefit from the divesture would be the dedication on Pearson's education assets.

"The balance of the proceeds will be used by Pearson for general corporate purposes and investment in its global education strategy," said Pearson.

John Fallon, chief executive at Pearson, said in a statement: "Pearson has been a proud proprietor of the FT for nearly 60 years. But we've reached an inflection point in media, driven by the explosive growth of mobile and social. In this new environment, the best way to ensure the FT's journalistic and commercial success is for it to be part of a global, digital news company."

He added that Pearson will now be 100 percent focused on its global education strategy.

"The world of education is changing profoundly and we see huge opportunity to grow our business through increasing access to high quality education globally," he said.

Evercore, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Cazenove acted as financial adviser to Pearson on this transaction. Rothschild Group acted as financial advisers to Nikkei on this transaction, noted Pearson. (1 pound=1.56 U.S. dollars) Endit