Future plans share issue to acquire Imagine Publishing

Publisher Future has agreed the acquisition of periodicals and 'bookazines' specialist Imagine Publishing to strengthen its magazine portfolio for £14.2m of newly issued shares.

The purchase will give the owners of Imagine, who expect to make to report £16.4m revenue and generate £3.4m of cash in the year to March, a stake of almost 33% in Future.

Future said it expects the acquisition to be "materially earnings enhancing" and generate significant cost synergies, increase profit margins and cash generation.

Imagine owns 19 periodical magazines, with titles including Digital Photographer, Gadget, GamesTM, Real Crime, and bookazines such as True Crime, Ipad for Beginners and various How It Works titles.

Last year it issued 265 magazines and 257 bookazines, delivering 2.4m and 1.0m copy sales respectively, on top of its 40 or so digital editions and 30 brands in its website portfolio, generating 2.5m digital impressions a month.

Future chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne, who has already got 30% of institutional and major shareholder votes to support the issue of the new shares, said the acquisition was a "unique opportunity to acquire a market leading knowledge, science and technology content business which will complement and expand our capabilities".

She noted Imagine's strong reputation and "world leader" status in bookazines.

"The acquisition will enable us to scale significantly our market position in bookazines and will see us enter the knowledge vertical, broadening our reach. The addition of Imagine with its strong management team and quality staff enables us to take a further substantial step towards our strategy of creating content that connects, increasing scale and improving operational efficiency."

Future shares, which in recent days have sunk below 8p for the first time since 2014, were up 7% to 8.47p.