Swisscom shows interest in Local.ch
Swisscom has made a non-binding offer to the advertising agency Publigroupe to purchase its stake in Local.ch. Tamedia still intends to acquire Publigroupe.
Swisscom announced on Friday that it is also interested in Publigroupe's stake in Local.ch. Publigroupe's Board of Directors has taken note of Swisscom's non-binding offer to acquire the stake in Local.ch at a price of CHF 230 million. Publigroupe made this announcement in a press release on Friday. This purchase offer will be considered, however, taking into account Tamedia's public purchase offer, which was pre-announced on April 17. Swisscom spokesperson Carsten Roetz told SDA that the complete takeover of the platform had been a topic of discussion at Swisscom for some time. "Our offer is not a reaction to that of Tamedia."
Last week, Tamedia announced that it had submitted a pre-announcement for a public tender offer for Publigroupe (Werbewoche.ch reported). Tamedia's takeover plans primarily target the Local.ch platform, which is operated by LTV Gelbe Seiten and Swisscom Directories. The platform is currently jointly owned by Publigroupe and Swisscom.
Christoph Zimmer, spokesman for the media group, did not wish to comment on whether the purchase offer would now be improved due to the competing offer from Swisscom when asked by the SDA news agency. "We are taking note of the offer now announced by Swisscom for Local.ch and will take it into account in our assessment", Zimmer said. Tamedia will present the offer prospectus around May 27. "We are convinced of our concept and that it could create an even stronger Swiss directory provider", Zimmer continued. Tamedia currently already owns 75 percent of Local.ch's competitor Search.ch.
According to the pre-announcement, Tamedia is offering CHF 150 per Publigroupe share. According to SDA, the calculated value of the transaction thus amounts to around CHF 350 million. However, Tamedia itself already holds a 7.22 percent stake in Publigroupe.
