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CMS advises A&N Media Limited across 7 jurisdictions on its strategic exit of leading online job and car portals as well as printing business in CEE

CMS has advised A&N Media Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of Daily Mail Group and General Trust Plc, in seven jurisdictions (including the UK) on its strategic exit of leading on-line job and car portals across six Central-Eastern European countries for the total transaction value of EUR 44 million on an enterprise value basis. The sales were structured as seller driven competitive tenders, as a result of which the assets were sold in three different tender processes to three different purchasers, including a full pre-signing sale side restructuring, funds repatriation exercise and the structuring of three separate deals.

In the first transaction that completed at the end of October 2012, Schibsted Classified Media has acquired 50 percent of the shares in Használtautó Ltd., the company operating Hungary’s leading car classifieds online portal with more than 80% of the country’s motor vehicles in their database.

The second deal completed in November 2012, included sale of full ownership of the leading online recruitment assets in the Slovakian, Czech and Croatian markets, and minority stakes of job portals operating in the Serbian and Bosnian markets to Alma Media.

The third sale, completed in January 2013, involved the indirect sale of the Hungarian print business of Lapcom Ltd. to Elliott group, operating regionally leading printed daily newspapers (Kisalföld and Délmagyarország), numerous advertising publications and printing services.

CMS provided seamless cross border advice in a number of jurisdictions lead by the Hungarian office of CMS, including the UK, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Partner in the firm’s Budapest Corporate Practice, Anikó Kircsi, led on the deal. Anikó comments, “Our extensive pan-European footprint was an effective match for A&N Media Limited and I am pleased that we were able to successfully advise the client on these high profile and challenging transactions.”

Graham Brown, Director of Corporate Development at A&N Media comments: “This was a complex, multi-jurisdictional acquisition with several parallel work streams under great time pressure, and I was very pleased with CMS’ ability to provide a seamless one-stop shop service across the breadth of jurisdictions and practice areas involved.”

Led by Budapest Corporate Practice Partner, Anikó Kircsi, the full team involved over 20 lawyers spread over 7 CMS offices, with other key team members being Éva Talmácsi, Zoltán Poronyi, Dóra Czeglédi, Ahmad Khokher, Marija Tesic, Andrea Zubovic-Devedzic Hrvoje Bardek, Matija Osrecak, Táňa Skálová, Petra Starková, Ivana Fára.