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Kinnevik in bid to buy up publisher Metro

Swedish investment firm Kinnevik has made an offer to buy up Metro International, a global publisher of free newspapers.

Published: 6 February 2012 08:44 CET
Kinnevik in bid to buy up publisher Metro

The value of the offer, excluding Kinnevik’s current stake in the company, at around 560 million kronor, or 815.7 million including debentures, places Metro’s overall value at 1.145 billion kronor.

An independent committee of the board of directors of Metro unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the offer, according to a statement from Metro issued Monday morning.

Kinnevik is offering to pay 0.90 kronor in cash for all of Metro’s A-shares, 0.94 kronor for B-shares, 0.50 kronor for all outstanding warrants issued by Metro, and 0.425 kronor per debenture for all outstanding debentures issued by Metro.

The offer, which was make public at 8am on Monday morning, amounts to a 46-47 percent premium compared to Metro’s volume-weighted average share price for the A Shares and B Shares, respectively, on the NASDAQ OMX exchange during the last three months.

Kinnevik already controls 46.6 percent of Metro’s capital and 42.2 percent of the votes in Metro.

”Kinnevik has followed Metro’s development with great interest since the company was founded more than 15 years ago to its present position as a unique and world leading player on the free newspaper market,” Mia Brunell Livfors, CEO and President of Kinnevik, said in a statement.

“We believe that Metro will continue to create value within the Kinnevik Group and we envision excellent opportunities to continued positive growth and profitability.”

“We can be good support, we have a lot of experience of investing in developing countries and a significant amount of online-investment,” she elaborated.

The Metro share price has almost halved over the course of a year, but Brunell Livfors does not thing they are being sold cheap.

“I tend not to talk about share values, that is for the market to decide,” she told news agency TT.

On Friday, trading in Metro’s shares was halted on the Stockholm exchange after the stock price shot up nearly 24 percent.

“As far as we can see it was an analysis by an analyst which was picked up by a paper and caused a strong reaction,” said Brunell Livfors, adding that as far as they can tell the surge was not caused by a leak from the company.

The Stockholm stock exchange on Monday decided to start trading the Metro share again.

At the opening of trading on Monday morning Metro’s B and A shares rose with 21 and 19 percent respectively, reaching the value offered by Kinnevik.

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METRO

The Paris transport works that could disrupt your summer

Every year, major engineering works take place on the capital's public transport network in July and August, when Parisians flee the city for their summer holidays. Here’s the lines affected this year.

Published: 23 June 2021 13:35 CEST
The Paris transport works that could disrupt your summer
Photo: Ludovic MARIN / AFP.

Metro

The most significant changes to Metro lines will take place on line 6. The line will be closed between Montparnasse-Bienvenüe and Trocadéro throughout July and August, and the Nationale station will remain closed until the end of August. Replacement bus services will be available but will add time to your journey.

The Mairie des Lilas stop will also be inaccessible from June 26th, so line 11 line will end at Porte des Lilas until August 29th.

There will also be disruption on line 14, with no trains running between Gare de Lyon and Olympiades from July 25th until August 22nd, as work takes place to extend the line to Paris Orly Airport.

RER

Services on the RER A line will be suspended between Auber and the Université, Cergy and Poissy stations from June 26th until August 29th, every day from 9pm and all day on weekends.

From August 9th to 13th, and August 16th to 20th,  services will be suspended all day between Auber and La Défense, and no trains will be running to or from Poissy.

Frequent work is planned on RER B, which will affect journeys between the city centre and Charles de Gaulle and orly airports. There will be no services between Aulnay-sous-Bois and Charles de Gaulle 2 Airport on the weekend of June 26th-27th, or any day after 11pm from July 1st until August 27th. There will however be a replacement bus.

Services between Charles de Gaulle terminals 1 and 2 will also be suspended on July 3rd and 4th. Likewise for journeys between Gare du Nord and Charles de Gaulle 2 on August 14th and 15th.

Improvements take place during the summer, when public transport is less crowded. Photo: Aurore MESENGE / AFP.

The Luxembourg stop meanwhile will be closed throughout the whole of July. As will the Fontaine-Michalon station to the south of Paris from June 28th to July 23rd, and Denfert-Rochereau every weekend from July 24th until August 22nd.

The RER C will also see its share of engineering works, with no trains running between Pontoise and Avenue Henri Martin on weekdays after 9:30pm, from July 1st until July 13th.

There is greater disruption to come on weekends from July 15th to August 21st. Services will be suspended between Musée d’Orsay and Pontoise, Saint-Quentin en Yvelines and Versailles Château Rive Gauche, and Massy – Palaiseau and Pont de Rungis Aéroport d’Orly.

Tram

Most tramlines will be unaffected by works, but there will still be interruptions in certain areas. Notably, the stretch of the T3b line from Porte de Vincennes to Delphine Seyrig will be blocked between July 3rd and 9th.

Full details of the disruption can be found on the RATP website.

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