(Adds details)
LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The publisher of the Daily Mail
said on Wednesday its founder and controlling
shareholder, the Rothermere family, had agreed the terms to take
the company private, comprising of a cash, dividends and shares
offer valued at 1,263 pence a share.
The Rothermeres announced their plan to buy out other
shareholders in July, with the move dependent on the sale of the
company's insurance business, Risk Management Solutions, and a
listing of online car seller Cazoo, which it partly owns.
Both conditions have now been fulfilled.
Under the terms of the offer, shareholders will receive 255
pence in cash, a special dividend of 568 pence and 0.5749 Cazoo
shares for each share.
The value of the offer is slightly higher than indicated in
July, and represents a 21.5% premium to the closing price of the
stock on the day before the plan was announced.
The Daily Mail was first published in 1896 by the ancestors
of DMGT chairman Jonathan Harmsworth, the Viscount Rothermere.
He said DMGT was a considerably smaller business following
the sale of RMS and the listing of Cazoo, with significantly
greater exposure to consumer media.
"We believe the terms of our Offer to be fair, particularly
bearing in mind not only the existing level of debt within DMGT
at a time of increasingly difficult market conditions, but also
the restrictions imposed on the operation of the business as
part of the settlement with the pension trustees," he said.
DMGT's liquidity has been constrained by its dual-share
structure, with voting rights only granted to some stock,
tightening the family's hold on the company.
The Rothermeres and their associates control 30.3% of the A
shares and all of the ordinary shares.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Sarah Young and Alison
Williams)