News
20/06/2007 - SEAT PG denies Thomson sale talk
SEAT Pagine Gialle has denied reports that a planned exit by its private equity backers could prompt a sale of the Italian group's Thomson telephone directories in the UK.
Luca Majocchi, chief executive, told the Financial Times he saw "no rationale to change the strategy now".
The group, which also has a 95 per cent share of Italy's directories market and operates a telephone directory inquiries service in Germany, unveiled a new three-year plan only last month.
BC Partners, CVC Capital Partners, Investitori Associati and Permira last month appointed Lehman Brothers to review their combined 49.6 per cent stake in the Milan-listed group almost four years after taking control of the company from SEAT Group.
The news prompted speculation that SEAT PG could sell Thomson, the second largest directory publisher in the UK, which competes with Yell, the UK-quoted yellow pages publisher.
"This possibility is not included in our plans," Mr Majocchi said. "Thomson is a good asset with which to develop our strategic position in the UK."
The group is midway through a two-year turnround programme at Thomson and has high hopes for a new "web agency" service, which would see it enable small businesses to gain a better presence on search engines.
Some of the existing private groups could decide to remain investors, Mr Majocchi said. Should they sell, however, "my understanding is that a new owner might be willing to [invest to] accelerate our strategy." The new strategy includes a push into Turkey, where SEAT PG is attracted by favourable demographics and absence of any established yellow pages or white pages business. Mr Majocchi said the group could spend €20m (£13.5m) entering the Turkish market with Dogan Yayin Holding, its new partner.
SEAT PG's private equity backers appear unlikely to match the returns made by some peers. The groups acquired a 62.5 per cent stake in August 2003, the transaction valued SEAT PG at €5.7bn. The consortium, which sold a 12.1 per cent stake to institutional investors the following April, quickly suffered a steep fall-off in the company's market value.
At Friday night's price of €0.458 per share, the group is valued at €3.8bn.
Copyright 2007 Financial Times
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