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PRISA refinances its debt until 2025 and agrees to sell Santillana Spain for 465 million

2020-10-19T06:40:12.912Z


The agreements set the framework for a future effective separation of the education and media businessesPRISA, the publishing group of EL PAÍS, has reached an agreement to refinance its debt until 2025, which also establishes the framework for a future effective separation of the education and media businesses. In addition, it has agreed to sell Santillana Spain to the Finnish group Sanoma for 465 million euros, as the company communicated this Monday to the National Securities Market Commission (CN


PRISA, the publishing group of EL PAÍS, has reached an agreement to refinance its debt until 2025, which also establishes the framework for a future effective separation of the education and media businesses.

In addition, it has agreed to sell Santillana Spain to the Finnish group Sanoma for 465 million euros, as the company communicated this Monday to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

"These operations will accelerate the digital transformation of the Group, focused on Ed-Tech learning systems in Latin America and on subscription models in its Media businesses," the company said in a statement.

The debt refinancing agreement involves extending its maturity until March 2025, with an initial cost of 5.5% and an average total cost of 7% during the life of the contract, as reported by PRISA.

It contemplates the amortization of 400 million of debt (with which the total net debt will be cut more than 30%) and establishes the framework for a future effective separation of the education and media businesses.

With this refinancing, the company will have around € 275 million to strengthen its liquidity and facilitate the development of its business strategic plans.

The price for the sale of Santillana Spain has been established on a company value of 465 million euros, which represents a multiple of 9.6 times the average ebitda of the educational cycle for the 2017/2019 period, above the multiples of the main comparable transactions in the sector.

The price will be paid in full in cash on the closing date of the operation, after discounting the net debt as of June 30, 2020 of the business object of the transaction, estimated at 53 million euros.

The sale will generate a consolidated capital gain estimated at 385 million euros.

The CEO of PRISA, Manuel Mirat, considers that "with these operations, the Group demonstrates the validity of the established roadmap, which has also earned the trust of creditors".

“With the sale of Santillana Spain, PRISA's ability to generate value in its business projects is evident.

In addition, with the election of Sanoma, Santillana contributes in an outstanding way to forming one of the great European leaders in the Education sector ”, adds Mirat through the company's statement.

The closing of the sale of Santillana España is conditional on obtaining the mandatory authorization from the Spanish competition authorities, and from the General Meeting of Shareholders of PRISA, as well as the formalization of the refinancing.

After the sale of the Santillana Spain business, which represents 21% of the Santillana Group's business, the latter will focus its efforts on promoting learning systems in Latin America, the company explains.

“Santillana is the only global education operator present in all Latin American countries, where it has a unique position and value proposition, projecting the subscription models developed in Brazil to other markets and reaching a total of 1, through them, 7 million students in the region, with a growth of 25% in the last annual period ”.

The digitization process undertaken by the PRISA group is also showing positive results in the Media area, in which EL PAÍS already has more than 115,000 subscribers, of which 68,500 are exclusively digital.

The newspaper AS is a digital leader thanks to its strong growth in Latin America.

The Board of PRISA considers that the agreements adopted will allow the Group to focus in the future as a priority on the management and enhancement of its two businesses, Education and Media, on firm and sustainable bases.

“As already demonstrated in its last General Meeting, both have high potential, managed with differentiated teams, attentive to their specific characteristics and circumstances, which require different capacities and routes, thus being in a position to attract the necessary resources and capital. for each of them ”, concludes the company.

Source: elparis

All business articles on 2020-10-19

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