SOLNA, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:
ICA Gruppen (STO:ICA) has signed an agreement to sell Forma Publishing Group, with publications that include Icakuriren and Hus & Hem, to the Danish media company Egmont. In a separate deal, the trade magazines Icanyheter and Market will be sold to ICA-handlarnas Förbund. Taken overall, the divestment of Forma is not expected to generate any earnings impact for ICA Gruppen.
“The divestment of Forma is in line with the strategy we adopted last autumn for our portfolio operations, and which meant that Forma, Kjell & Company and Cervera will be sold,” says ICA Gruppen’s CEO Per Strömberg.
The sale of Forma is subject to approval from the Swedish Competition Authority. The final purchase price, and consequent final earnings impact, will be determined in conjunction with completion of the divestments to Egmont and ICA-handlarnas Förbund, preliminarily scheduled for in the beginning of October 2014. The enterprise value for the magazines Market and Icanyheter, to be acquired by ICA-handlarnas Förbund, amounts to approximately SEK 20 million.
Divestment of the remaining operations in Forma complies with the strategy adopted by ICA Gruppen in autumn 2013 and which meant that Forma, Kjell & Company and Cervera will be sold. Forma Books was sold in autumn 2013 and the sale of Kjell & Company to FSN Capital was finalised in May 2014. The divestment process for Cervera will be initiated during autumn 2014.
Forma Publishing Group had sales totalling SEK 242 million in the period July 2013-June 2014 and posted an operating profit excluding non-recurring items of SEK 16 million for the twelve months period.
ICA Gruppen AB discloses the information provided herein pursuant to the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 08.45 CET on Wednesday, 29 August 2014.
ICA Gruppen AB (publ) is one of the Nordic region’s leading retail companies, with around 2,300 of its own and retailer-owned stores in Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Group includes the retail companies ICA Sweden, ICA Norway and Rimi Baltic, ICA Real Estate, which owns and manages properties and ICA Bank, which offers financial services to Swedish customers. The Group also includes the wholly owned portfolio companies Forma Publishing Group and inkClub and partly owned portfolio companies Cervera and Hemtex. For more information see icagruppen.se (http://www.icagruppen.se)
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