Pre-announcement of a public tender offer for PubliGroupe

Zurich, 17 April 2014 – The Swiss media group Tamedia Ltd has made a pre-announcement today, Thursday 17 April 2014, of a public tender offer for PubliGroupe Ltd. The offer states a price of CHF 150 for each registered share in PubliGroupe Ltd (Valor 462630, ISIN CH0004626302, PUBN). This corresponds to a premium of 22 percent with respect to the volume-weighted average share price of PubliGroupe shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange over the 60 trading days prior to the date of the pre-announcement. At present, Tamedia Ltd already owns 7.22 percent of the registered shares of PubliGroupe Ltd.

The shareholding in local.ch lies at the heart of the planned takeover. Tamedia already holds a 75 stake in search.ch, the leading directory and information platform in the user market. By participating in the business of local.ch, which PubliGroupe operates jointly with Swisscom, Tamedia intends to strengthen further its position in the Swiss directory market and to develop even more attractive products in the growing digital advertising market for small and medium-sized undertakings. Together, both of the Swiss directory and information platforms local.ch and search.ch, which compete within their segment with international providers such as Google, serve 4.8 million users each month. 

As regards the other shareholdings of PubliGroupe, Tamedia will examine whether to retain them within the media group or to sell them to other owners. Tamedia does not regard the PubliGroupe minority shareholdings in ZANOX.de AG (47.5 percent), SNP Société Neuchâteloise de Presse S.A. (29 percent), FPH Freie Presse Holding AG (25 percent) and Südostschweiz Presse und Print AG (20 percent) as strategic stakes and does not seek any influence over the companies. Tamedia is willing to conduct negotiations with the respective majority owners and to sell the shares, if an appropriate value can be agreed upon. 

The takeover will be presented to the Swiss Federal Competition Commission.