Axel Springer to split classifieds business from media assets

Politico owner Axel Springer said on Thursday that it had struck a deal with its largest shareholder KKR to split its classifieds business from its media assets.

Under the new planned structure, the company’s media businesses - Bild, Business Insider, Politico, Welt, Idealo, Bonial, Morning Brew, Dyn Media, EMarketer and the joint venture Ringier Axel Springer Poland - will remain within Axel Springer.

Friede Springer and Mathias Döpfner will together hold close to 98% of the company. Meanwhile, Axel Sven Springer, one of the grandchildren of the company founder, will retain the remaining shares - a smaller portion of his previous minority shareholding.

"This makes Axel Springer a fully privately owned and operated media company for the first time since the company’s IPO back in 1985," it said.

The Stepstone Group, Aviv Group, finanzen.net, and Awin, pending approvals, will be held as separate joint venture companies with KKR and CPP Investments as majority shareholders, Axel Springer as minority co-shareholder, and with an economic participation by the grandchildren of Axel Springer.

The exact participation of the respective shareholders will be finalised in the process of getting to binding agreements.

Friede Springer, vice chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Axel Springer, said: "For the past decades, we have enjoyed remarkable achievements with Axel Springer. Throughout, we never lost what truly defines us: being a journalistic institution with clear values.

"So, it was Mathias Döpfner’s and my vision that one day, Axel Springer would again be a privately owned and operated company. The realisation of this vision now fills me with great joy."