The founding Rothermere family has agreed a deal to take the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail Online private.
Investors in Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) will receive 1,263p per share through a mix of cash, dividends and shares in online car seller Cazoo. That is a premium of 16 per cent to Tuesday’s closing price.
Lord Rothermere announced in the summer he wanted to reorganise the company, slimming it down so it was more focused on media, and buy out the remaining shares the family does not control.
The Rothermere family is to take Daily Mail and General Trust private with investors receiving 1,263p per share through a mix of cash, dividends and shares in online car seller Cazoo
The deal was contingent on three conditions: selling off insurance risk business RMS, the successful stock market listing of Cazoo and striking a deal with the DMGT pension trustees.
RMS, which provided climate and natural disaster modelling to insurance companies, was sold to ratings agency Moody’s in August for £1.4billion. Cazoo floated in New York a few weeks later.
Earlier this week DMGT reached a £412million agreement with the company’s pensions trustees, clearing the final obstacle to making a firm offer.
The deal will be put to investors in a vote.
Majedie Asset Management, which owns 4.6 per cent of DMGT’s stock, yesterday said it opposed the deal.
Lord Rothermere said he believed the terms of the deal, which has been recommended by DMGT’s independent directors, were ‘fair’.
Brothers Alfred and Harold Harmsworth launched the Daily Mail in 1896 and DMGT was formed in 1922 to manage the family’s interests.
The company has been listed on the stock market for almost 90 years and now has a roster of publications including New Scientist magazine, and the Metro and i newspapers. It also owns an events division.
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