UK publisher Mecom Group Plc (LON:MEC) said today that its Dutch subsidiary Wegener Nederland BV had agreed to sell its automotive classifieds web portal AutoTrack.nl for EUR26m (USD33.6m) on a debt- and cash-free basis, subject to adjustments.
The buyer is Dutch publisher De Persgroep Nederland BV.
The target, with 4,800 dealer subscribers and some 1.2m unique users per month, posted a pretax profit of some EUR3m last year. It is owned by Wegener Digital BV, a unit of Mecom’s news and information provider Koninklijke Wegener NV (AMS:WEG).
The deal, which is in line with the vendor’s strategic review process, also includes the intellectual property rights to the Jobtrack brand name and related Internet domains, which are currently owned by another Wegener subsidiary. It is subject to the completion of consultation processes with the works councils of Wegener and De Persgroep.
Under a separate commercial deal with Wegener, Persgroep can also opt to buy future advertisement space in the print and online media of Wegener against a down payment of EUR2m, Mecom added.
