Emap: Sale of French magazines

9:13 a.m. Wed 21 Jun 2006

The French consumer magazine business has been sold for 550m euros, approximately £380m. This is a revenue multiple of 1.2× and an EV/EBIT of 10×.

This is a good price for a declining business.

£285m is to be returned to shareholders.

It does not significantly change our view on the value of Emap, which is now trading on a prospective PE of 13× with a 3.5% yield. Without its weakest business this still looks like good value.