NZZ takes over St. Galler Tagblatt and NLZ
The St. Galler Tagblatt and the Neue Luzerner Zeitung are being acquired in their entirety by the NZZ. The Zurich-based media group is taking over the shares held by Publigroupe, which had long since announced its intention to sell its stakes in newspaper publishers.
According to information from Monday, NZZ is paying Publigroupe CHF 53 million for the just over 25 percent of FPH Freie Presse Holding that is now changing hands. FPH is the majority shareholder of St. Galler Tagblatt AG and LZ Medien Holding, which also owns free newspapers, online platforms and radio and television stations in addition to the daily newspapers. NZZ previously owned just under 75 percent of FPH shares, meaning that it already controlled the two regional media companies.
As Tamedia recently made a takeover bid for Publigroupe, the sale of the FPH share package still has to be approved by Publigroupe's shareholders. However, Tamedia is not interested in the publishing interests anyway - when the media company announced its interest in buying, it made it clear that it was mainly interested in the internet platform Local.ch, which Publigroupe operates together with Swisscom. In addition to its stake in FPH Freie Presse Holding, Publigroupe also owns other shares in Swiss publishing houses. For example, the Group owns one fifth of Südostschweiz Presse und Print and 29 percent of SNP Société Neuchâteloise de Presse S.A. with the newspaper titles L'Impartial and L'express. According to Publigroupe, it also holds 18 percent of the Ticino-based Regiopress (La Regione Ticino) and 17 percent of Rhône Media (Le Nouvelliste). When asked, Publigroupe spokesman Beat Werder was unable to specify whether there were already talks about the sale of this stake.
Negative impact on consolidated earnings
However, the sale of the FPH stake that has now been announced will have a negative impact on Publigroupe's consolidated financial statements this year. A goodwill write-down will reduce the annual result by CHF 24 million, as detailed in Publigroupe's press release. On the other hand, the transaction will have a slightly positive effect on equity, as the goodwill was once offset against equity. The full takeover of FPH will enable the NZZ Group to simplify its group structure. It also describes the purchase of the minority stake as strengthening its market position in Eastern and Central Switzerland. It is not yet clear when Publigroupe's shareholders will decide on the sale of the stake in the "St. Galler Tagblatt" and the "Neue Luzerner Zeitung". An extraordinary general meeting is also required to decide on the offer from Swisscom, which would like to acquire the other half of Local.ch from Publigroupe. As Tamedia had already announced its interest in acquiring the entire Publigroupe before Swisscom's offer, a decision by the shareholders' meeting is necessary for the sale of the Local.ch shares. (SDA)
