Reinforcement from Sweden
PubliGroupe increased its annual profit by 103 percent in 1999 thanks to a joint venture
PubliGroupe increased its 1999 annual profit by 103 percent thanks to a joint ventureBy Christophe Büchi PubliGroupe (ex Publicitas Holding) is steadily reducing its dependence on the Swiss advertising business. By acquiring a stake in the Swedish Planit Media, it is now strengthening its international sales network PPN (Publicitas Promotion Network). In addition, it presented a splendid 1999 financial year.
PubliGroupe (spelled with a French "e": Lausanne headquarters oblige ...) buys 20 percent of the shares in Planit Media in Malmö. At the same time, the acquisition of PPN's newspaper database by Planit Media was agreed, as well as the use of PPN as a sales agency for Planit Media's offerings.
Planit Media was founded three years ago. It offers - via the basic platform www. planitmedia.com - prices and data of more than 39000 magazines to advertising agencies, media agencies and publishing houses. The service is used by more than 4000 subscribers in 64 countries. Work is currently underway on new databases that will contain additional information on newspapers, online advertising, exhibitions and outdoor advertising.
The agreement with PubliGroupe gives Planit Media access to PPN newspaper data. At the same time, it secures the market power of PPN, whose 52 companies handle advertising sales for 2,000 print media and generate annual sales of CHF 423 million. No wonder, Planit Media CEO Colm Barry expects great success from the new cooperation. But what is the P's interest in this Swiss-Swedish engagement? "PPN sees in the merger with Planit Media an additional service for its advertising customers and agencies, as well as an additional market presence for its representative titles," explains CEO Hans-Peter Rohner.
1999 business results with doubled net profit
Meanwhile, PPN is not the only P division on an expansion course: all business units are currently growing. It is not surprising that General Manager Jean-Jacques Zaugg showed an extremely satisfied face at this year's annual press conference in Lausanne.
After all, net income increased by 103 percent to 156 million Swiss francs in 1999, the highest profit in the company's history (Group sales 2.31 billion Swiss francs). The Board of Directors therefore proposes to pay the shareholders a dividend of 25 Swiss francs (plus 108 percent). And because this proposal has to be approved by the shareholders, it may be expected that it will be adopted ...
"All of the Group's business units increased their market shares and productivity," Zaugg emphasized. A good sign for the print media: The core business - trading with advertisements - also contributed to the improved result. In particular, business in job ads flourished.
PubliGroupe says goodbye to billboards
Nevertheless, the brilliant 1999 result is largely attributable to extraordinary financial income (sale of real estate and participations), which this time reached CHF 113 million (up 195 percent). In particular, PubliGroupe sold its 30 percent stake in APG Holding (Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft). PubliGroupe has thus bid farewell to its long-held dream of gaining a foothold in the poster business.
A merger with APG would have made perfect sense prima vista: PubliGroupe's strong position in print media and APG's expertise in outdoor advertising would have made it possible to offer an even better media mix. But APG wanted no part of a merger with PubliGroupe, opting instead for the backing of French billboard market leader Decaux. "For us, the sale of our stake was the logical consequence of this," says P headquarters. However, saying goodbye to the billboards may not have been easy for the P people.
Good weather forecasts for the beginning of the year
Plenty of sunshine is also expected for the current year. Business is running smoothly in all divisions, it was said in Lausanne, so that the high level of 1999 should be maintained despite considerable investments, especially in the online segment. PubliGroupe expects - "subject to economic downturns"! - PubliGroupe expects an operating profit of about 85 million francs and extraordinary income from the sale of real estate worth about 70 million francs.
To ensure that not only the shareholders, but also the employees can take great pleasure in a further rise of the P-shares on the stock exchange, PubliGroupe would like its employees to participate in the capital. To this end, the creation of conditional capital (two percent of the share capital) will be proposed to the General Meeting. The staff should be able to acquire share certificates at preferential conditions.
IPO of Real Media Inc. with unknowns
With regard to the recently announced IPO of the online group Real Media Inc. in New York, in which PubliGroupe now holds 70 percent of the capital, few details were given in Lausanne - in view of the current stock market turbulence and the strict American stock market legislation.
The P-managers limited themselves to the assurance that the going public was planned for May, but that the conditions had not yet been clearly defined. This was followed by the specification that around 15 percent of the share capital would be put up for sale. Whereby one apparently expects (or hopes for) proceeds of around 80 million dollars. After the IPO, PubliGroupe's stake was to decline from 70 to 52 percent. "But we want to retain the majority," Zaugg added.
P like "pedeckt
PubliGroupe (spelled with a French "e": Lausanne headquarters oblige ...) buys 20 percent of the shares in Planit Media in Malmö. At the same time, the acquisition of PPN's newspaper database by Planit Media was agreed, as well as the use of PPN as a sales agency for Planit Media's offerings.
Planit Media was founded three years ago. It offers - via the basic platform www. planitmedia.com - prices and data of more than 39000 magazines to advertising agencies, media agencies and publishing houses. The service is used by more than 4000 subscribers in 64 countries. Work is currently underway on new databases that will contain additional information on newspapers, online advertising, exhibitions and outdoor advertising.
The agreement with PubliGroupe gives Planit Media access to PPN newspaper data. At the same time, it secures the market power of PPN, whose 52 companies handle advertising sales for 2,000 print media and generate annual sales of CHF 423 million. No wonder, Planit Media CEO Colm Barry expects great success from the new cooperation. But what is the P's interest in this Swiss-Swedish engagement? "PPN sees in the merger with Planit Media an additional service for its advertising customers and agencies, as well as an additional market presence for its representative titles," explains CEO Hans-Peter Rohner.
1999 business results with doubled net profit
Meanwhile, PPN is not the only P division on an expansion course: all business units are currently growing. It is not surprising that General Manager Jean-Jacques Zaugg showed an extremely satisfied face at this year's annual press conference in Lausanne.
After all, net income increased by 103 percent to 156 million Swiss francs in 1999, the highest profit in the company's history (Group sales 2.31 billion Swiss francs). The Board of Directors therefore proposes to pay the shareholders a dividend of 25 Swiss francs (plus 108 percent). And because this proposal has to be approved by the shareholders, it may be expected that it will be adopted ...
"All of the Group's business units increased their market shares and productivity," Zaugg emphasized. A good sign for the print media: The core business - trading with advertisements - also contributed to the improved result. In particular, business in job ads flourished.
PubliGroupe says goodbye to billboards
Nevertheless, the brilliant 1999 result is largely attributable to extraordinary financial income (sale of real estate and participations), which this time reached CHF 113 million (up 195 percent). In particular, PubliGroupe sold its 30 percent stake in APG Holding (Allgemeine Plakatgesellschaft). PubliGroupe has thus bid farewell to its long-held dream of gaining a foothold in the poster business.
A merger with APG would have made perfect sense prima vista: PubliGroupe's strong position in print media and APG's expertise in outdoor advertising would have made it possible to offer an even better media mix. But APG wanted no part of a merger with PubliGroupe, opting instead for the backing of French billboard market leader Decaux. "For us, the sale of our stake was the logical consequence of this," says P headquarters. However, saying goodbye to the billboards may not have been easy for the P people.
Good weather forecasts for the beginning of the year
Plenty of sunshine is also expected for the current year. Business is running smoothly in all divisions, it was said in Lausanne, so that the high level of 1999 should be maintained despite considerable investments, especially in the online segment. PubliGroupe expects - "subject to economic downturns"! - PubliGroupe expects an operating profit of about 85 million francs and extraordinary income from the sale of real estate worth about 70 million francs.
To ensure that not only the shareholders, but also the employees can take great pleasure in a further rise of the P-shares on the stock exchange, PubliGroupe would like its employees to participate in the capital. To this end, the creation of conditional capital (two percent of the share capital) will be proposed to the General Meeting. The staff should be able to acquire share certificates at preferential conditions.
IPO of Real Media Inc. with unknowns
With regard to the recently announced IPO of the online group Real Media Inc. in New York, in which PubliGroupe now holds 70 percent of the capital, few details were given in Lausanne - in view of the current stock market turbulence and the strict American stock market legislation.
The P-managers limited themselves to the assurance that the going public was planned for May, but that the conditions had not yet been clearly defined. This was followed by the specification that around 15 percent of the share capital would be put up for sale. Whereby one apparently expects (or hopes for) proceeds of around 80 million dollars. After the IPO, PubliGroupe's stake was to decline from 70 to 52 percent. "But we want to retain the majority," Zaugg added.
P like "pedeckt
How beautifully this is formulated: "PubliGroupe supports initiatives of publishing houses which, in search of industrial and editorial synergies, join together in publishing groups with the aim of being firmly anchored in their region and economically sound," was heard at this year's annual press conference in Lausanne. And as proof that fine words can also be followed by deeds, the good services provided by P in merging the two failed Neuchâtel newspapers L'Express and L'Impartial were recalled.
So now PubliGroupe is also taking a 35 percent stake in Vogt-Schild AG, the publisher of the Solothurner Zeitung. Is this a step towards a major structural adjustment between Berne and Zurich? And if so, what might such a move look like in the eyes of the P-men? In response to this question from WerbeWoche, PubliPresse CEO Ernst Grab is cagey. Yes, he believes in the necessity of synergies in this region, he admits ... but there are many different models of how a cooperation could be achieved. Well - we had actually already guessed that ourselves!
