London-listed Centaur Media receives takeover approach

Centaur Media, the owner of titles such as The Lawyer, could become the latest London-listed company to go private after a takeover approach was revealed.

The business confirmed to the London Stock Exchange that it had received a “highly preliminary expression of interest” from Waterland Private Equity Investments.

Waterland has until 5pm on May 8 to either announce a firm intention to make an offer or not.

Shares in Centaur Media are currently trading at around 40p each, giving the company a market capitalisation of just under £60m.

In the last five years, the firm’s share price has never been higher than the 53.6p it achieved in November 2021.

Since the turn of the year, a raft of companies listed both on the London Stock Exchange itself and AIM have accepted deals to be taken private.

A number of others have been approached but deals were never completed – such as Currys.

“Highly preliminary expression”

A statement issued to the London Stock Exchange said: “The Centaur Media Plc board of directors notes the recent media speculation in the Centaur Media Plc share price and confirms it has received a highly preliminary expression of interest from Waterland Private Equity Investments B.V. in relation to the proposed acquisition of the entire issued, and to be issued, share capital of the company.

“Shareholders are advised that there can be no certainty that any offer will be made, nor as to the terms of any offer.

“The board remains confident in the company’s growth strategy and its ability to maintain a competitive edge within the markets it operates.”

Last month, Centaur Media announced revenue of £37.3m for 2023 as well as pre-tax profit of £6.1m.

At the time, chief executive Swag Mukerji said: “This year’s performance is the culmination of our MAP23 strategy which achieved its three clear objectives: to implement a simple, efficient and scalable operating model, develop high quality, trusted products which are the leaders in their markets, and build the credibility of Centaur’s management team for delivering on its strategic and financial commitments.

“We have significantly grown our profitability and built a business with an impressive proportion of higher quality revenue, providing us with a scalable platform for long-term sustainable future growth.

“Looking ahead, we are determined to keep driving performance beyond MAP23 to become a customer-centric business intelligence and learning organisation with growth from organic revenue, new product development and selective bolt-on acquisitions.

“I firmly believe Centaur has the talent, strategy and financial discipline to achieve its ambitious objectives and look forward to updating the market on our next phase of growth at our upcoming Capital Markets Day.”