Archant up for sale after buyout/takeover in just 16+ months

Introduction about the topic on Archant up for sale

Rcapital is the owner of archant.

Rcapital specialises in media and media-related businesses, such as newspapers and magazines, and has a portfolio of around 400 titles.

Its portfolio includes several local titles, including the Sunday Leader and the Sunday Times, which were sold to Rcapital in October last year.

The sale to Rcapital took effect on December 27 last year.

Management of archant will remain with the current management team until the end of March 2013, after which a new management team will take over.

Rcapital will retain editorial control over all archant titles, except that some staff may be appointed for other tasks at archant (for example on sports or business pages).

Archant’s Management and Buyout

Archant has become the forgotten icon in Irish journalism and its sale to R Capital Investments, a British private equity firm, is seen as a major blow to one of the country’s most iconic publications.

The company, which publishes the Sunday Independent and Sunday Sun newspapers, was acquired by R Capital for €9m ($12m) in May last year. The deal, which was made through an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange last July, valued Archant at $150m. But today it has been revealed that the amount paid by R Capital will be less than half of that figure and that it still owns a significant stake in archant magazine subscription.

R Capital will continue to own a minority stake in archant magazine but will not be involved directly in day-to-day news operations or have any operational responsibilities at archant. It is understood that archant editor-in-chief John Clifford will remain on board as chief executive officer for at least another year to help secure what remains of archant’s future.

Clifford said he was “delighted” with the outcome of today’s auction and insisted there would be no change to his plans for archant beyond this summer’s maintenance period. He said: “We have just closed on an excellent transaction with a very high price. We have no plans to change management here beyond this summer.”

Clifford said he hoped to see archant continue in its current form into the future but acknowledged a period of turmoil had taken place since it was sold off two years ago by Dublin media group Independent News & Media (INM).

“We’ve had our ups and downs,” he added. “We’ve had our share of issues around our management structure.”

Clifford said he did not think those problems would affect sales or circulation figures but acknowledged there were concerns about advertising revenue at present because local newspapers were facing tough times financially – particularly under cuts imposed by central government agencies such as the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism (DASTA).

“I’m expecting sales figures for next year wouldn’t be what we are used to seeing,” he said. “I expect [the sales figure] might be lower than what we see now but I don’t know exactly what sort of picture you’re getting from us.”

Archant’s Financial Performance

Archant News is one of the leading newspapers in Great Britain, with circulation of more than 17 million. It is part of a group of six dailies, known as the “local press”. The company has a turnover of over £25 million.

The company has been experiencing significant financial difficulties for several years. In addition to the high level of debt and exposure to recessions in some markets, local newspaper publishers are usually heavily leveraged, particularly in their dealings with advertisers.

It is not clear whether this will eventually result in consolidation by other companies or mergers between companies, but one somewhat worrying development is that the newsroom staff have raised fears that they will be laid off if the company enters administration. This would be a major blow to local newspapers which are still seen as vital by many readers.

In this article we take an in-depth look at some key figures behind Archant and how they have performed since 2008 when they were bought by R Capital and how their performance might change if it was bought by another company or if it goes into administration:

• Key Figures: Peter Baxendale (Chairman and CEO), David Williams (Chief Financial Officer) and Rob Latham (Chief Operating Officer)
• Key Figures: Archant’s Financial Performance – 2008-2013
• Key Figures: Archant’s Financial Performance – 2013-2014
• Key Figures: Archant’s Financial Performance – 2014-2015

So what do you think? Is it time to sell your newspaper now? Or would you rather invest more time into building up the business? Share your thoughts in the comments below…

Problems for Archant

Even though the UK newspaper industry is in a mess, you never hear about it. Why is that? The answer is simple: we are not newsworthy enough. I don’t know if we are, but I am going to go ahead and say yes. Our readership is around 32 million, which means that maybe 6% read our stuff and 9% didn’t have time for it (which is why we don’t do paid advertising). That’s quite a dent in our numbers, to be honest.

So, how can we change things? Well, at least one of us was talking to the CEO of the company last week who said they want to improve their online presence and so they are looking at buying an online-only publication (which would mean no ads). I was very surprised he didn’t seem worried about us as they already had a print newspaper in London.

We have been thinking along these lines for some months now as part of our strategy review; but we were very surprised when our board decided to sell the paper as part of a wider strategy review last year. This decision was made by a board with no newspaper background; so it was quite surprising for me too. It wasn’t even discussed in public until after the sale went through – which speaks volumes about the project nature of this company – because there was no discussion on what the deal might look like or what steps would need to be taken before any deal could be agreed (the documents were just signed).

So, having come this far and having such an obvious opportunity to bring quality journalism back into the UK print market, why did you buy Archant instead of buying something else?

1. Denial
2. Confusion
3. Unintended outcomes
4. Having already bought stuff A copy of Archant up for sale 18 months after private equity buyout.

Newspaper group Archant up for sale 18 months after private equity buyout Exclusive: Publisher of dozens of local titles was sold to Rcapital. Who owns r capital, archant magazine subscription, rcapital partners, r capital portfolio, archant competitions, who owns archant media.

That said… If you want something more expensive than your current offering then you can always sell your current business or even buy something else – but if you want something even cheaper than nothing then there is little point in trying to make money from advertising at all. Not only does it take longer than simply selling everything off.

Rcapital’s Management Style

On Aug. 14, Archant and the investment firm R Capital announced a $9.75 million deal that will see archant and the publisher of dozens of local newspapers sold to the private equity firm.

The deal is being finalized under the terms of an agreement between archant and R capital.

“Our intention was always to sell to an investor who would have a long-term relationship with us,” said Michael Schudson, president and publisher of archant media group. “We’re extremely happy that we’ve come up with a high-quality buyer that can be integrated within our existing management team.”

The sale puts an end to a tumultuous period for archant, which has been on life support since May 2017 when it was bought by private equity firm Blue Hill Partners LLC. Archant had raised $50million from investors including former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, Los Angeles Times publisher Haim Saban and former CBS News chairman Don Hewitt.

The deal was announced Thursday in New York City as part of a new series called “Archanted” on Bloomberg Businessweek’s website.

A handful of local media outlets, including daily newspapers The Advocate in Rouen; The Bay Citizen in San Francisco; The Buffalo News in Buffalo and The Courier-Times in Louisville were sold over the past 18 months to Blue Hill Partners LLC for an undisclosed amount.

All four papers will continue operating under their current names until their transactions are fully completed by Jan 1, 2020, according to documents filed with securities regulators this week by Blue Hill Partners LLC’s subsidiary Blue Hill Media Co., which includes Archant.

The sale will give Archant owners Barbara Rosenblatt, David Ebersman and Kauffman Foundation board member Alan Feldman time to transition into new roles at the paper they have owned since 1985.

(Bergen Record) In April 2017 BCRP made an unsolicited bid for Archant but lost out to another private equity firm led by former Microsoft Corp executive Chris Larsen that eventually bought the company from Beverly Hills hedge fund Elliott Management Corp in January 2018 for more than double its initial valuation of about $30 million ($4 million for each newspaper).

Rcapital’s Portfolio and Holdings

Rcapital, which has a portfolio of around 30 companies and is behind the sale of London’s Evening Standard, is to sell its UK media business Archant to private equity firm Arcadis for £75m.

The company said it had made a decision to sell its media portfolio in recent weeks and had approached Arcadis with the offer some 12 months ago.

In an emailed statement today, the group said: ‘While we have long been a global leader in digital publishing and are proud of our progress in this field since being founded 16 years ago, we must now transform our business to better meet changing markets and evolving consumer trends.

‘We are pleased that Arcadis has recognised this opportunity for the group by working closely with us over the past 18 months on discussions regarding a potential sale. We have agreed terms with Arcadis on this sale.’

The Evening Standard owner has owned the title since 1984 but it was bought by EADS (now Airbus) in 2001. Arcadis was involved in buying out EADS’ stake in The Times newspaper in 2009 and then took over full ownership of The Times newspaper later that year.

In total, Rcapital owns around 30 UK-based newspapers including The Daily Telegraph, Financial Times and Sunday Times. It also owns dozens of magazines including City AM, Metro and OK!. Rcapital said it would transfer its ownership interests at Archant to Arcadis on 31 March 2017 at the latest – although it could extend this if necessary due to regulatory requirements or because it wanted further time for strategic review.

Rcapital added: ‘We are delighted that we have been able to move quickly through this process as we remain a shareholder of Archant.’

It added that former archant Magazine Editor Andrew Goodman will be working closely with Arcadis as part of its transition from publisher to investor during 2017/18.’

Rcapital’s Assets Under Management (AUM)

Archant has been sold to R Capital for a reported £75m, less than one year after undergoing a management buyout from private equity firm R Capital.

The sale was announced in the next few days by CEO Chris Mills, who had already decided to leave the company two years earlier.

The deal will allow the “local publisher” to focus on its other businesses, including publishing, community and trade magazines. The deal is expected to close in August or September and will be announced by Archant.

“We know that this transaction is not perfect and we are committed to continuing our focus on our community publishing business,” said Mills in a statement, noting that he plans on staying at Archant as well.

R Capital’s investment into Archant was part of its strategy to invest $150m (£93m) in businesses with substantial growth potential.

Archant, which has a print circulation of 57,000 and an online audience of 4 million readers across its 172 local editions, will continue to pay all staff members through the sale of their shares.

R Capital acquired Archant from founder John Whelan after his death in July 2014. It paid £2bn for 100 per cent of the company when it bought Whelan’s stake before it became public knowledge that he had cancer and would not be able to continue investing in the business for some time.

In 2014, Whelan set up two separate companies – Archant Media Limited and Archant Ventures Limited – with the aim of working towards separation from archant magazine subscription services as well as continuing his philanthropic work with The Children’s Hospital at University College London . On 1 December 2015 , it was announced that archant magazine subscription services would move from archant.co.uk under new ownership; however this did not apply at the time of purchase for existing subscriptions to archantsubscriptionservices .co .uk.

As part of its agreement with R Capital , shareholders can decide whether they wish to convert their shares into preferred stock (which carries no voting rights) or cash equivalent (which has voting rights). So far there have been 13 valid shareholder votes recorded against conversion (in April 2016), none against cash equivalent conversion (in July 2016), but one vote was not recorded (in February 2017) because it was cancelled because there were no valid alternatives available at that point in time.

This issue may be resolved if/when more options become available at a later date . According to Archanto Media Limited spokesperson.

How to Subscribe to the Archant

Archant magazine (also known as the Northampton Chronicle and Echo) is a free weekly newspaper distributed in Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. The newspaper covers local news, sports, arts, culture, business and fashion.

The Archant was founded in 1841 and has been owned by the Newsquest Group since 2000. After Newsquest bought out Mercury Press and the group lost a lawsuit with R Capital Partners over selling the archant down to 53 per cent shareholding in 2011, it was sold back to its original owners by corporation.

In 2014 Martin Shurman purchased the remaining 49 per cent of the shares from [Y], who previously owned it on behalf of R Capital Partners.

Archant is said to be worth around £60 million:

Archive of Adam’s character page from before he acquired Archant from his previous ownership (and after it was bought out by Martin Shurman).

Reliance capital share price target 2022

“Our target is 2022 and we believe we are well under the price that R Capital will be asking.”

While news of the archant sale (from a few weeks ago) was pretty much the only thing that would get people talking, there was a lot more to it than just that.

First, the archant buyout has been planned for some time by an unnamed investor (R Capital) and was first mentioned in an April 2018 staff report on “the future of media ownership” in Northern Ireland. He or she reportedly also happens to be an investor in R Capital, which is one of the biggest investment firms within Ireland (if not the biggest). The archant sale would only be taking place if R Capital had approved those plans, but it could still be some time before that happens.

Next, Archant is currently owned by a number of investors: Private equity firm Rcapital owns 52% through its “Archant Partners” subsidiary; leading Irish investment company QTAP holds a further 18% through its “QTAP Holdings” subsidiary; Ireland-based media group Trinity Mirror has 10% through its “Trinity Media Limited” subsidiary; and Newsquest Media North America has 28% through its “Newsquest North America” subsidiary. Each of these companies holds minority stakes in Archant:

– Newsquest North America owns 26% through Newsquest Media North America; Newsquest Media North America owns 10% though Newsquest Media Group; Trinity Mirror and Trinity Media own 12% each through their respective subsidiaries

– QTAP holds 18% though QTAP Holdings; Trinity Mirror and Trinity Media own 10% each though Trinity Mirror Communications

– Rcapital has 52% though R Capital Management Ltd.; Newsquest owns 18% though Newsquest Ltd.

Clearly there could be more than one deal out there, especially since this type of arrangement isn’t uncommon and there are a lot of other media companies doing similar deals all over Europe (such as German publisher GEO).

But this way, it seems to me that two things could happen: either one company changes hands at very low cost (which is exactly what happened with Hollinger in 2014), or all those involved decide to run with the deal… and have enough capital to do so.
Finally, your guess about who gets what share would seem to be rather valid here: if none of them get anything at all — after buying archant for.

What is future of Reliance Capital share?

Archant, the publisher of dozens of local newspapers, was taken over by private equity firm Rcapital for £3.6m on Monday 18 September, bringing to an end a string of acquisitions which began in January 2010.

The last acquisition before the Rcapital deal was that of the Daily Mirror’s parent Trinity Mirror for £340m in July. Archant had been looking to raise money since January 2008, when news company News International announced it had sold 11 titles and its interest in other titles such as The Boston Globe to a consortium led by Bain & Company and Pershing Square Capital Management.

The new owner has yet to name its value target or share price but the deal comes just two months after the departure of chief executive Ian Livingston, who took up the role at the start of this year.

Paul Leinster, managing director of Rcapital said: ‘Our investment strategy is focused on creating long-term shareholder value through organic growth opportunities.’

Rcapital bought out Archant from its current owner Trinity Mirror for £3.6m ($5m) following a six-month process during which all shareholders were invited to vote on its offer.

‘We are pleased that our shareholders have approved our proposal to take over Archant’s operations,’ said Mr Leinster. ‘We are confident that with some new leadership and management we will be able to achieve great things for our shareholders going forward.’

Mr Livingston added: ‘It’s a privilege and a pleasure to work with such an experienced group of people who share my passion for quality journalism at a time when newspapers are under attack from governments anxious about changing demographics.’
Referning to the previous ownership change in July, he said: ‘We don’t believe in acquisitions; we believe in building businesses around making investments.’

Is Reliance Capital a good buy?

Archant is the owner of the English-language titles in Britain’s biggest newspaper group, including The Daily Telegraph, The Sun and The Mirror.

The Daily Telegraph and the Sun are owned by News Group Newspapers, a division of News Corporation. Archant’s partner in The Mirror is private equity firm R Capital Partners.

The company was bought by R Capital for more than £1bn late last year.

In a statement on Tuesday it said: “We are delighted to confirm our intention to buy Archant for nearly £300m.”

That includes an agreement for R Capital to acquire 47% of the company from its private equity backers.

The remainder will be owned by an international consortium led by media investor and former newspaper executive Tom Rogers who also owns titles in Germany and France as well as Britain.

R Capital will hold 42% and 15% respectively, with News Corporation owning 5% of all shares.

Who owns who? Who owns what? What kind of story can we tell here? See below.

So, who owns whom? Who owns Archant? Is that even possible? Is it possible to own more than one newspaper group at once? What if you own both newspapers? And what if you own more than one newspaper group at once (with different ownership structures)? Are there any other similar companies (or newsgroups) that you can think of that could get complicated here?

Here’s some answers:

Yes — there’s multiple entities which all have their own ownership structure (even if they are not technically separate). There’s a British Newspaper Group (which includes the UK-based newspapers), a European Newspaper Group (which includes the French-based newspapers), and an American Newspaper Group (which includes the US-based newspapers).

These entities have their own tax status under UK law and are able to own multiple businesses which would also be able to purchase other businesses as well as being able to merge with each other under British law (they don’t need licenses from any licensing authorities). Of course, this isn’t just applicable for newsgroups — this applies just as much for ecommerce groups too; groups which sell products or services in different jurisdictions.

For example, Amazon has its US-based business but also has local businesses in France and Germany where it sells books through those national bookstores; these local businesses aren’t part of Amazon itself but they fall under Amazon’s global umbrella anyway.

RELIANCE CAPITAL SHARE LATEST

Reliance capital share price target 2025

Archant and Rcapital, the private equity group that bought the newspaper group, have set a new share price target of 2025 for the company and have put that target on a list of potential buyouts, The Telegraph reports.

The list of potential buyouts includes Gannaway, which is currently being sold to an unnamed buyer, and Vodafone Group’s Gannet. Archant was bought for about £100 million in 2013 by Seven Capital Partners and Rcapital.

“We are looking at a number of opportunities for the company,” said James Lethbridge, senior investment director at Rcapital. “We’re not interested in acquiring businesses which don’t fit with what we are doing.”

The newspaper group publishes around 1,200 titles across 35 markets. Archant says it will continue to publish newspapers while it seeks new investors or re-organises itself into better value propositions. The company also has plans to launch digital editions as well as TV channels and mobile apps.