Centaur Media shares plunge as it offloads financial services division

(Sharecast News) - Centaur Media shares were in the red on Monday morning, after the business information and specialist consultancy firm announced that it sold its financial services division to business and consumer media firm Metropolis Group.The London-listed company said the disposal followed its decision last October to explore the divestment of its smaller businesses, in order to simplify its structure and focus management resources on its leading brands.Metropolis paid £5m in cash for the division sold, with Centaur set to consider the best use for the proceeds following the completion of its divestment review.Centaur said its financial services division comprised a portfolio of multi-channel publishing and content brands, including Money Marketing, Mortgage Strategy, Platforum, Taxbriefs and Headline Money.Those brands generated advertising and other revenue by serving a "range" of audience segments within the financial services industry, including financial advisers, mortgage brokers, accountants and asset managers."This disposal continues the simplification of Centaur, further reducing our advertising exposure and allowing us to focus on developing products and services with stronger recurring revenues," said Centaur Media chief executive officer Andria Vidler."A simpler group structure will allow us to deliver efficiencies and other operational benefits."Vidler said the financial services portfolio had played a "key role" in the development of Centaur over the years."I am pleased that Metropolis sees the potential to develop the business further."Robert Marr, chief executive of Metropolis Group, added that the acquisition continued the development of Metropolis, and aligned with its vision of delivering sustainable profitable futures for well-managed media brands."We look forward to working together with the financial services team to further develop these long-standing market-leading brands."For the year ended 31 December, Centaur said its financial services business made an adjusted operating profit of £1.2m, up from £0.6m in 2017, while revenues slid to £8.2m fro £8.9m.As at 31 December, the business had gross assets of £2.3m.Shares in Centaur Media were down 9.5% to 50.22p as at 1005 BST on Monday.