Centaur announces that it is exploring a sale of their home interest portfolio

Press Release: The Board of Centaur Media Plc (LSE: CAU), the business to business information, insight and events group, announces that it has commenced a process to explore the sale of its business to consumer segment, Home Interest.

The Home Interest segment has undergone a significant transformation in the past three years, generating improved returns. However, Centaur’s long term future is as a more digitally focused B2B business. The Board has therefore decided that now is the appropriate time to consider the sale of the segment with the proceeds to be reinvested towards the corporate objective. Given the progress made under Centaur’s ownership, the Board believes that Home Interest is well-placed to achieve continued growth under new ownership.

The Home Interest portfolio consists of three key brands; Homebuilding & Renovating, Period Living and Real Homes, and comprises seven market leading exhibitions, print and digital assets.

Under Centaur’s ownership, the Home Interest segment has benefited from considerable investment. This investment has driven a marked improvement in performance and particularly in Homebuilding & Renovating over the past three years has seen revenue CAGR of 9%. Revenues of Home Interest were £12.9m in 2016 with proforma EBITDA of £4.9m with exhibitions comprising 50% of revenues.