Stevens & Bolton has advised longstanding client Metropolis Group, on its acquisition of the finance division of Centaur Media, the business information, events and marketing provider to professional and commercial markets.
Established in 1994, Metropolis Group is a fast growing media and technology group specialising in business/consumer media and reward programmes. The acquisition of Centaur’s financial services division will comprise a portfolio of leading brands, including Money Marketing, Mortgage Strategy, Platforum, Taxbriefs and Headline Money, serving a range of audiences within the financial services industry.
The disposal follows Centaur’s decision last year to explore the divestment of its smaller businesses, in order to simplify their structure. Metropolis has an acquisition strategy to develop its range of brands in business media, technology and in other sectors ( its acquisition criteria are at https://www.metropolis.co.uk/acquisitions/) with acquisitions in recent years having included 11 leading B2B brands from Ascential (including Drapers and Construction News) and Property Week from United Business Media Plc.
Commenting on the deal, Robert Marr, Chief Executive at Metropolis stated: “The acquisition continues the development of Metropolis and aligns with our vision of delivering sustainable profitable futures for well-managed media brands. We look forward to working together with the financial services team to further develop these long-standing market-leading brands. It was a pleasure to work again with Stevens & Bolton’ highly commercial and fast moving team on this transaction.”
Nick Atkins, corporate partner at Stevens & Bolton, commented, “We were delighted to again work with Robert and the Metropolis team in successfully delivering an exciting addition to Metropolis’ portfolio of brands. We look forward to seeing Metropolis continue their growth strategy in the media sector.”
The Stevens & Bolton team was led by corporate partner Nick Atkins, supported by Nassar Nassar and Rebecca Minear (corporate), Sarah Balchin (corporate tax), Beverley Whittaker and Greg Barton (commercial) and Kerry Garcia and Hollie Ryan (employment).