Best chapter in Pearson breakup story yet to come - RTRS
LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The media group can soon sell its 47 pct stake in publisher Penguin Random House to co-owner Bertelsmann. Including future synergies, the stake could fetch $2.7 billion, twice what Pearson got for the FT. Since the venture could get more valuable still, waiting looks better.
CONTEXT NEWS
Pearson will be free to sell its 47 percent stake in book publisher Penguin Random House to co-owner Bertelsmann when a lockup agreement ends in October. Pearson and its German partner merged their English-language book publishers Penguin and Random House in 2013.
Bertelsmann holds 53 percent of the company and runs the day-to-day operations.
Penguin Random House made revenue of 3.3 billion euros and EBITDA of 452 million euros in 2014. That includes the German-language book publishing business of Bertelsmann, which contributed a bit less than 30 million euros, according to people familiar with the situation.
On July 23, Pearson announced it had agreed to sell the FT Group to Japan’s Nikkei for 844 million pounds in cash, saying it will focus on its global education business. It is also in talks about divesting its 50 percent stake in weekly magazine The Economist.