Sanoma divests its online classifieds business Oikotie to Schibsted for EUR 185 million

Sanoma Corporation, Inside Information, 16 July 2020 at 22:20 EET

Sanoma divests its online classifieds business Oikotie to Schibsted for EUR 185 million

Sanoma has divested Oikotie Ltd, a leading online classifieds player in Finland, to Schibsted, the leading player within marketplaces in the Nordics. The agreed enterprise value (EV) of Oikotie is EUR 185 million, corresponding to an EV/EBITDA multiple of 19.6 (based on 2019 pro forma EBITDA). The divestment concludes the evaluation of strategic options for Oikotie, which was announced on 11 February 2020. According to its strategy, Sanoma will use the funds primarily to further grow its learning business.

“The divestment of Oikotie strengthens Sanoma’s strategic focus on Learning and the chosen core businesses of Media Finland: news & feature, entertainment and B2B marketing solutions. Going forward, we will be having EUR 400-500 million headroom for future M&A, where our focus will be on growing especially our learning business. We are working on a solid pipeline of potential targets, even during the current exceptional times with the corona virus pandemic,” says Susan Duinhoven, President and CEO of Sanoma. “I would like to thank the Oikotie team for their commitment and success in growing and developing the business, which is in a very good shape despite the inevitable temporary headwinds due to the corona virus pandemic this year. I am happy that we have found such a good and experienced new owner for this successful business. We are keen to continue to do business with Oikotie and its new owner going forward,” she continues.

“Finland has been home to Schibsted for over a decade. With this acquisition we have a unique opportunity to widen our scope here and show our long-term commitment to the Finnish market. Schibsted already owns Tori, and adding Oikotie to our portfolio will secure us two highly complementary online marketplaces with strong brands and skilled employees in Finland. This gives us a solid platform and enables us to create better digital services for customers in Finland. We look forward to continuing to do business with Sanoma in the future," says Kristin Skogen Lund, CEO of Schibsted.