Founder and controlling shareholder the Rothermere family has agreed to take Daily Mail publisher DMGT private for 1,263p a share.
Under the terms of the deal, DMGT shareholders will receive 255p a share for each of their shares in cash, a 568p special dividend, 0.5749 Cazoo shares and a 17.3p final dividend.
The Rothermere family announced over the summer that it was planning to buy out DMGT’s other shareholders. This was dependent on three conditions: the sale of the company’s risk division, the listing of car seller Cazoo and the agreement of a deal with trustees over the pension schemes.
The first two conditions have been met, and on Tuesday, DMGT said that it and Rothermere Continuation (RCL) – the Rothermere family’s vehicle, which owns around 30% of DMGT – were “close to agreeing” a deal with the trustees, which would see it pay around £400m into the three schemes.
Viscount Rothermere, director of RCL, said: “The sale of RMS and the Cazoo IPO have delivered excellent shareholder returns, but inevitably DMGT is now a considerably smaller group of businesses, with significantly greater exposure to consumer media.
“This has led RCL and the DMGT board to decide to implement a major reorganisation of the group by distributing the value created by the RMS sale and the Cazoo IPO in conjunction with the offer.
“RCL’s proposal will now have the effect of increasing the aggregate cash distribution by some £40m, the cost of which will be borne by RCL if its offer is accepted. We believe the terms of our offer to be fair, particularly bearing in mind not only the existing level of debt within DMGT at a time of increasingly difficult market conditions, but also the restrictions imposed on the operation of the business as part of the settlement with the pension trustees.”
