DODS.L Regulatory News (DODS)

21 Jul 2005 07:01

Huveaux PLC21 July 2005 21 July 2005 HUVEAUX SET TO ACQUIRE LEADING FRENCH MEDICAL PUBLISHER The Board of Huveaux PLC is pleased to announce that it has today made a formaloffer of €11.5 million (£7.9 million) in cash to acquire the entire issued sharecapital and debt of COPEF S.A. which comprises the business of JB BailliereSante ("JBB Sante"), a leading publisher in the French medical press sector. Thebusiness, which was originally founded in 1818 and is based in Paris, is beingacquired from a private equity fund. The principal publications of JBB Sante are Panorama du Medecin, La Revue duPraticien and Le Concours Medical. These publications represent a leadingposition in the medical press sector and are uniquely placed to address themarket for Continuing Medical Education ("CME") which is being introduced as acompulsory requirement for all medical practitioners in line with recent Frenchlegislation. It is intended that JBB Sante would be managed together with Huveaux's fastgrowing medical publication business, ATP- Egora, which is also based in Paris.The enlarged operation would be led by Alain Trebucq, the Directeur General ofHuveaux's existing medical publishing business, who is highly experienced in thesector and was formerly General Manager of Panorama du Medecin. Huveaux's enlarged medical publishing business in France would form the Group'snew Professional Division which would run alongside Huveaux's other two existingoperations, namely the Political Division and the Learning Division (formerlyentitled the Education & Training Division). The consideration payable for JBB Sante on completion will be €11.5 million(£7.9 million) in cash which, together with integration costs, initial workingcapital requirements and transaction fees, will be financed through a €15.0million (£10.3 million) seven-year term loan from the Bank of Scotland. The netassets of JBB Sante amounted to €1.2 million (£0.8 million) as at 31 December2004 and the acquisition is to be made on an effective debt free and cash freebasis. The transaction, which is subject to the satisfactory completion of certainconditions and a mandatory Works Council consultation programme, is expected tocomplete by mid-September 2005. JBB Sante's statutory results for the three financial years ended 31 December2004, adjusted for comparability purposes, were as follows: •'000 2002 2003 2004 Revenue 19,991 18,635 18,930 EBITDA 1,896 1,587 1,823 Upon completion, an integration programme would be proposed by Huveaux at anestimated cash cost of €2.0 million (£1.4 million). This will be taken as anexceptional charge in Huveaux's 2005 results. It is expected that this programmewould yield annual cost savings of approximately €1.0 million (£0.7 million)commencing in 2006. The Board of Huveaux expects the acquisition of JBB Sante to enhancesignificantly Huveaux's EPS in 2005 and 2006*. * This statement should not be taken to mean that the future EPS of Huveaux willnecessarily match or exceed the historical reported EPS of Huveaux and noforecast is intended or implied. For further information, please contact: John van Kuffeler, executive Chairman, Huveaux PLC 020 7245 0270Jean-Marie Simon, Directeur General, Huveaux EU +33 1 47 38 04 64James Leviton, Finsbury Limited 020 7861 3801 An analysts presentation will be held at 9.30 am this morning at the offices ofDresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, 20 Fenchurch Street, London. About Huveaux: Huveaux is a publishing and media group which operates through its Political,Learning and Professional Divisions. Since being admitted to AIM in December2001, it has successfully completed the acquisition of seven complementarybusinesses. Huveaux was founded by John van Kuffeler, formerly Chief Executive and nownon-executive Chairman of Provident Financial plc. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange