Media Publications
Publishing (Magazines)
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France
Initial investment date: February 1996
Realisation date: July 2004
Trade: Magazine Publishing
Business description: Media Publications was, at the time of GMT's investment, one of the largest independent magazine publishing companies in France, with a portfolio of ten specialist titles spanning several business and consumer categories. The GMT team approached Media Publications with a buyout proposal at a time when Media Publications was already engaged in merger discussions with a major US publisher, and were able to structure an alternative transaction that directly addressed both the needs of the existing shareholders and management’s desire to retain operational autonomy. The GMT team worked with the management to develop and implement a plan to integrate a group of highly disparate business units, expand the management team, and begin developing e-commerce units linked to the core magazines and their strong existing subscriber base. Following the sale of a series of individual titles to trade players, the remaining core assets were sold to Marie Claire in July 2004.
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