Daily Mail publisher DMGT has agreed to sell its insurance risk business, RMS, to US credit ratings firm Moody’s, for around £1.4bn in cash.
The company said it was the right time to monetise its investment in RMS at “a premium valuation”.
Chief executive officer Paul Zwillenberg said: “The sale of RMS marks another major milestone in DMGT’s transformation. It is the culmination of our strategy of investment in businesses combined with active portfolio management.
“Organic investment in RMS’s software, data, data analytics, models and applications has created substantial shareholder value, particularly over the last few years as the team has delivered the accelerated product development programme.”
Last month, it emerged that DMGT’s largest shareholder – Rothermere Continuation – was considering taking the media group private in a potential £810m deal.
Bermuda-based RCL is the holding company of DMGT’s executive chairman, Jonathan Harmsworth, the viscount Rothermere, who inherited his role as chair and controlling shareholder of DMGT on the death of his father in 1998.
Lord Rothermere owns all of the issued voting shares, which means any deal that he backs and is recommended to shareholders will be approved. There is no mechanism for minority shareholders to rebel.
However, a bid was dependent on a number of factors, including the sale of DMGT’s insurance risk division and the successful listing of Cazoo.
