Bonnier sells 49.9% of Børsen to JP/Politikens Hus

The Swedish media group Bonnier has entered into an agreement to sell 49.9% of the shares in Dagbladet Børsen A/S and Børsen Associated Media A/S to JP/Politikens Hus. Plesner assisted Bonnier with the transaction.

Approximately one year ago, the parties entered into an agreement about a sale of 100% of the shares in Dagbladet Børsen to JP/Politikens Hus. This week, JP/Politikens Hus announced that following a lengthy review procedure with the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority it had been decided to forgo the Authority's approval of the transaction. Accordingly, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority suspended its review of the merger notification and stated at the same time that it had serious concerns about the merger, including in the market for Danish-language, nationwide, paid, daily news in print and the market for print advertising.

Under the recently concluded agreement, JP/Politikens Hus will not get a majority stake and Bonnier will still be the principal shareholder. The agreement will not influence the day-to-day operations of Dagbladet Børsen and the other associated media in Børsen Associated Media.

The 49.9% shareholding will be sold to JP/Politikens Hus for DKK 400m. It corresponds to the pricing of the shares in the original agreement in which the price for all shares was fixed to DKK 800m.

Plesner assisted the Bonnier group with both the original transaction and with the new transaction, including competition law aspects of the transactions.

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