B2B publisher Wilmington has this morning announced the sale of a sizeable part of its publishing business to Progressive Media Ltd for £12m.
The sale includes all the group’s magazines in design, construction, power, catering, automotive and other specialist markets.
These assets, Wilmington said, represented a combined turnover of £19.8m and an operating profit of £1.2m.
The Wilmington board announced in June that it was putting its ‘non-core assets’up for sale, following a strategic review.
The company will now focus on three core areas: legal/regulatory; healthcare, and media/entertainment (which includes Press Gazette).
In its results for the year ending June 2006, these three core areas represented 93 per cent of the group’s pre-tax profits.
The Wilmington chief executive, Charles Brady, said: ‘Our focus will now be on the development of training and information businesses in professional markets.
‘Wilmington is confident it will significantly improve the revenues and the performance of the group through organic growth and by acquisition.
‘I would like to thank all the employees of the businesses that have been included in this transaction for their vital part in the history and progress of Wilmington.
‘I wish them well in the future.”
Progressive Media will acquire the entire issued share capital of Wilmington Media Limited and Dewberry Redpoint Limited.
Among the titles changing hands are Blueprint, FX and What Van?.
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