TIDMWIL
RNS Number : 5826U
Wilmington PLC
19 January 2017
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION for the purposes
of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
19 January 2017
Wilmington plc
Acquisition of Health Service Journal
- Significantly strengthens Wilmington's presence across the UK healthcare market -
- Acquisition brings positive cross-sell opportunities and recurring revenue streams -
Wilmington plc ("Wilmington" or the "Group"), the knowledge
leader in Risk & Compliance, Finance, Legal, and Insight,
announces it has reached agreement to acquire the Health Service
Journal ("HSJ" and the "Acquisition"), the UK's leading health
information, insight and networking business, from Ascential plc
for GBP19m with an adjustment for working capital, payable on
completion. The consideration is to be funded from the Group's
existing debt facilities. The Acquisition is expected to complete
on 31 January 2017.
The Acquisition is consistent with Wilmington's strategy of
acquiring complementary businesses with high levels of recurring
revenues and strong cash generation. HSJ will sit within
Wilmington's Insight division, aligned with Wilmington Healthcare
and will position Wilmington as the leading provider of insight,
analytics, networking and education in UK Healthcare; one of the
priority areas for the Group's capital allocation.
Background to HSJ
HSJ is the UK's leading health information, insight and
networking business with a highly trusted brand providing
unparalleled penetration into the NHS and private vendor space
through subscription information and data products, events and
awards and marketing solutions.
HSJ has a growing recurring revenue stream from subscriptions
and annual events which last year represented around 70% of total
revenue (*1). The existing management team, led by Andy Baker and
Alastair McLellan, will remain with the business and are included
within the c60 employees anticipated to transfer across to the
Group with HSJ.
HSJ's key products are:
-- HSJ.co.uk: HSJ's flagship digital information product is the
UK's premier source of proprietary content, insight, comment and
analysis on the UK healthcare sector. HSJ Online has approximately
17,000 users and is sold on an individual and increasingly
corporate subscription basis. HSJ Online is widely recognised for
its thought leadership in the UK healthcare sector.
-- HSJ Intelligence: a fast growing digital data subscription
product with approximately 20,000 data points, which was launched
in 2014. It already has 115 enterprise customers from across the
healthcare industry and presents a significant growth opportunity
for HSJ.
-- HSJ Events: 11 annual networking events including awards,
large scale conferences and summits and the flagship Health Service
Journal Awards event.
-- HSJ Marketing Services: targeted marketing solutions for the
healthcare industry and a legacy digital recruitment offering.
Acquisition rationale
The HSJ business will be integral to Wilmington's market leading
healthcare business significantly enhancing the Group's presence
across the UK healthcare market. Uniquely, Wilmington Healthcare
will have a complete UK industry presence across both
provider/payer and the private sector in Pharma and MedTech and
other healthcare providers.
Healthcare expenditure is inexorably rising and businesses need
the solutions that Wilmington Healthcare provides to optimise their
activities. The acquisition of HSJ will enhance Wilmington's access
to senior decision makers and access to a wider group of healthcare
stakeholders who will benefit from the combined business's enhanced
solutions.
The Acquisition brings clear cross-selling opportunities to the
Group with attractive options to expand its services. By way of
example, this is likely to include the combining of qualitative and
quantitative analysis to support clients, including the NHS.
Wilmington will align the HSJ events business with its other
Insight events operations to offer an even wider range of
networking opportunities and events.
HSJ's revenue is principally of a high quality recurring nature
as a result of its growing subscription revenue base supported by
annual events and, to an increasingly lesser extent, marketing
services.
Financial impact
The Acquisition is expected to be earnings per share enhancing
in the first full year of ownership. HSJ revenue for the 12 months
ended 31 December 2016 was GBP10m with pro-forma contribution
before Group overheads of GBP4.4m. HSJ's gross assets at 30 June
2016 were GBP12.8m including intangible assets.
Extension of banking facility
The Group has also exercised its option to activate an accordion
facility which provides it additional headroom of GBP20m on its
existing multicurrency debt facility, increasing the total level of
that facility to GBP85m.
Commenting on the acquisition Pedro Ros, Chief Executive of
Wilmington plc, said:
"I am pleased to be announcing this acquisition of Health
Service Journal, which represents an exciting opportunity for
Wilmington to acquire a brand of exceptional status in the UK
Healthcare market, a primary source of critical information and
insight to senior management and decision-makers in the NHS and
wider healthcare sector.
I'm delighted to welcome Health Service Journal to Wilmington, a
highly complementary and earnings enhancing acquisition. Together
with our Wilmington Healthcare business, the combination will
become a central presence across the UK healthcare market. This
will open up a number of important cross-selling and networking
opportunities for us to provide even more powerful, market leading
insight to our clients."
Alastair McLellan, Editor of HSJ, said:
"We are very pleased to be joining Wilmington and we look
forward to providing critical information and insight to the
healthcare industry under new ownership. Collaborating together
with Wilmington's existing Healthcare business will bring a range
of new information service and networking opportunities and we look
forward to the challenge with confidence."
Andy Baker Managing Director of HSJ added:
"HSJ is highly respected for the quality of its content and its
journalism and the acquisition will further support Wilmington's
market leading content acquisition and analysis. It's incredibly
exciting for HSJ to be joining a business as committed to
healthcare as Wilmington and I think it bodes extremely well for
HSJ's subscribers and customers."
([1]) Unaudited pro-forma based on management information for the year to 31 December 2016
([2]) Unaudited pro-forma based on management information at 31
December 2016
For further information please contact:
Tel: 020 7422
Wilmington plc 6800
Pedro Ros, Chief Executive
Officer
Tony Foye, Chief Financial
Officer
Numis Securities Limited
(Sole Financial Adviser to Tel: 0207
Wilmington) 260 1200
Nick Westlake
Lorna Tilbian
Mark Lander
Hugo Rubinstein
Tel: 020 3727
FTI Consulting 1000
Charles Palmer
Emma Appleton
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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