British publisher Future to buy Go Compare for $793 mln

Shares in Future, whose titles also include Homes & Gardens, PC Gamer, TV Times and Woman's Weekly, were down 10%, reflecting the plan to issue new shares. GoCo's non-executive chairman and largest shareholder Peter Wood has given an irrevocable undertaking to back the deal with his 29.65% stake, Future said, adding it had secured support from the owners of 33.56% of GoCo in total so far.

British publisher Future has agreed to buy the owner of price comparison website Go Compare for 594 million pounds ($793 million) to link titles such as Ideal Home and Country Life with information on choosing financial products. GoCo Group shareholders will receive 0.052497 new Future shares and 33 pence in cash, valuing each GoCo Group share at 136 pence, the companies said on Wednesday. That represents a premium of 23.6% based on Tuesday's closing price.

Shares in GoCo, whose Go Compare website is known for its opera-singing mascot Gio Compario, jumped to a two-year high and were last trading at 125 pence. Shares in Future, whose titles also include Homes & Gardens, PC Gamer, TV Times and Woman's Weekly, were down 10%, reflecting the plan to issue new shares.

GoCo's non-executive chairman and largest shareholder Peter Wood has given an irrevocable undertaking to back the deal with his 29.65% stake, Future said, adding it had secured support from the owners of 33.56% of GoCo in total so far. GoCo was spun out of eSure four years ago, an insurance group founded by Wood.

Jefferies analyst Giles Thorne said a counterbid from within the sector could not be ruled out, but that the backing from Wood was "a huge plank of support for Future's ambitions". Investec said Future already produced content in the home sector, so adding GoCo would enable a customer to read an article, then click on an e-commerce tab to go to GoCo to buy home insurance.

"This will greatly increase the eyeballs on GoCo's content and enable a new vertical for monetisation for Future," its analysts said. Future announced the deal alongside results that showed a 79% jump in adjusted operating profit to 93.4 million pounds on revenue up 53% to 339.6 million pounds for the year to Sept. 30.

 

Also Read: British police detain man after car crashes into police station

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)