Daily Mail and General Trust (LSE:DMGT) PLC, the publisher of the Daily Mail, said its founder and controlling shareholder, the Rothermere family, had agreed the terms to take the company private after being public for 125 years.
Under an agreement announced today between the Rothermere vehicle and non-conflicted DMGT directors, shareholders will receive 255p in cash, a special dividend of 568p, and 0.5749 Cazoo shares for each share they own.
The Rothermeres announced their intentions to buy out other shareholders in July, subject to the sale of DMTG’s insurance business (Risk Management Solutions) and the listing of Cazoo.
Risk Management Solutions was sold in September for £1.4bn, and Cazoo was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in August.
The value of the offer is just higher than that agreed in July and represents a 21.5% premium to the closing price of the stock on the day before the plan was announced, of 1,040p.
“DMGT is now a considerably smaller group of businesses, with significantly greater exposure to consumer media.
“This has led RCL and the DMGT board to decide to implement a major reorganisation of the group by distributing the value created by the RMS sale and the Cazoo IPO in conjunction with the offer,” said Viscount Rothermere, director of RCL.
Commenting on the offer, Kevin Parry on behalf of the Non-conflicted DMGT Directors said: "DMGT has delivered very significant value for all shareholders through the execution of its strategy.”