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Politico owner Axel Springer and private equity group KKR have agreed a €13.5bn deal to break up the company, splitting the profitable classifieds business from its media group.
The plan, first reported by the Financial Times in July, was approved on Thursday by the company’s supervisory board.
KKR will exit the company’s turbulent media division, which includes the German newspapers Bild and Die Welt as well as the US outlets Politico and Insider.
That move allows Mathias Döpfner, the company’s 61-year-old chief executive and one of its biggest shareholders, to cement his control over the new business and pursue his ambitions to expand in English-language media. He and Friede Springer, widow of the company’s founder, will together hold close to 98 per cent of the media division. That unit is being valued at €3.5bn, according to people close to the deal.
KKR and its partner the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) will become the majority owner of the classifieds business, which includes the jobs platform StepStone and real estate ads unit Aviv.
This is a developing story
