(Adds Moody's comment, shares)
LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The publisher of Britain's Daily
Mail said on Thursday it had agreed to sell its insurance risk
business RMS to Moody's Corporation for about 1.425
billion pounds ($1.99 billion) in cash.
Chief Executive Officer Paul Zwillenberg said Daily Mail and
General Trust (DMGT) had built up RMS by investing in
its software and data analytics, creating substantial
shareholder value.
"We have decided that now is the right time to monetise our
investment in RMS at a premium valuation," he said.
Moody's said RMS would immediately increase its insurance
data and analytics business to nearly $500 million in revenue
and would accelerate the development of its global integrated
risk capabilities. RMS is expected to generate revenue of about
$320 million for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, Moody's said.
RMS, which has more than 400 risk models covering 120
countries, provides climate and natural disaster risk modeling
serving the global property and casualty (P&C) insurance and
reinsurance industries.
DMGT said last month it was in talks to sell RMS at the same
time as it announced an 810-million-pound plan by its founding
family and leading investor, the Rothermeres, to buy the group
outright.
The plan was contingent on the sale of RMS, the completion
of the listing of online car seller Cazoo, which DMGT partially
owns, and an agreement with the company's pensions trustees.
The RMS disposal follows the sale in recent years of
Hobsons, Genscape and Zoopla, collectively realising around 1.2
billion pounds of value, and leaving a group focused on consumer
media, events and exhibitions and property tech.
DMGT said it still intended to distribute the proceeds of
the RMS sale, along with its cash and its stake in a listed
Cazoo via a special dividend of about 610 pence.
Shares in DMGT were trading up 1.8% at 1,088 pence in
afternoon deals.
($1 = 0.7178 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young and Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
