Sale of Publicitas to Aurelius completed
The sale of Publicitas, the media sales division of Publigroupe, to the German company Aurelius was completed as announced on June 30, 2014.
This follows the approval of the transactions by Publigroupe's shareholders, the approval of the competition authority and the completion of all formalities for the transaction, according to a statement on Wednesday. The transaction was announced on April 2, 2014. As of July 1, 2014, Publicitas became a company of Aurelius, a company traded on the Munich Stock Exchange. Aurelius is acquiring Publicitas with all related companies in Switzerland and abroad, as well as its 49 percent stake in Xentive. All employees and all contractual obligations, in particular to media providers, advertising clients and agencies, will also be taken over.
For Publigroupe, the transaction will lead to a one-off write-down of around CHF 30 to 40 million, which will impact Publigroupe's net result in 2014. Publigroupe expects a positive operating result for the first half of 2014, which still includes the result of Publicitas.
The sale of Publicitas by Publigroupe was announced on April 2 this year (Werbewoche.ch reported). According to a statement, Publicitas intends to continue to be active in the newly created, entrepreneurial environment for the marketing of advertising space from local, regional, national and international media providers, as well as advising advertising clients and agencies in Switzerland and a further 20 countries on the placement of their advertising message in line with the target group. The strategy announced in August 2013 of increasingly automated planning, booking and processing of advertising in all media types can be implemented consistently and with the necessary room for maneuver under the new owner.
Uniform brand identity from 2015
In addition, Publicitas will introduce a uniform brand identity in Switzerland by January 1, 2015 at the latest. In line with today's media usage behavior and Publicitas' approach of offering customers fully comprehensive and cross-genre media solutions, the competence brands Publicitas Cinecom (cinema advertising), Publicitas Publiconnect (classified advertising), Publicitas Publimag (trade magazines), Instanz (performance marketing) and Publimedia will be replaced by the single brand Publicitas by 1.1.2015 at the latest, and the competencies in the various advertising media will be united under one roof and one brand - Publicitas. (pd/hae)
