Funke Mediengruppe raises 100 million euros

Essen — Funke Medi­en­gruppe has raised 100 million euros by means of the first promis­sory note loan in its history. The money is earmarked for further growth projects. The next tran­sac­tions are said to alre­ady be “in the pipeline”. 

The tran­sac­tion compri­ses tran­ches with terms of three and five years, which were offe­red at varia­ble and fixed inte­rest rates, Funke said in a state­ment. “The tran­sac­tion impres­si­vely demons­tra­tes that we are also a very attrac­tive company for new inves­tors in an other­wise chal­len­ging market envi­ron­ment. We will grow both through acqui­si­ti­ons and through the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of our exis­ting busi­nesses,” writes Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer Simone Kasik.

Acqui­si­ti­ons

This year, the company has alre­ady acqui­red the titles “Brigitte”, “Gala”, “Eltern”, “Chef­koch” and the social media company Kitchen Stories and is not plan­ning to stop there: “We are clearly on the buyer’s side in the market — the successful place­ment of the promis­sory bill confirms this,” writes Ricarda Wörde­mann, Head of Corpo­rate Finance at the media group. The next tran­sac­tions are alre­ady “in the pipeline”. 

Publisher Julia Becker (photo: Funke Medi­en­gruppe) is also quoted: “Our latest steps send a clear signal: quality jour­na­lism has a future. And it proves that respon­si­bi­lity and econo­mic soli­dity are not mutually exclu­sive — but mutually reinforcing.” 

Funke has appoin­ted BayernLB, finpair and UniCre­dit as arran­gers for the tran­sac­tion, with Nord/LB as the first lender and paying agent.

Advi­sor Funke: Herter & Co. — Teneo Capi­tal Advi­sory as Sole Debt Advi­sor and advi­sed by Milbank LLP.

Funke Media Group

“We connect, inform, enter­tain, inspire and involve people with our media, enable exch­ange and parti­ci­pa­tion, support and provide orien­ta­tion in a complex world. In doing so, we create the condi­ti­ons for an open, demo­cra­tic society and a libe­ral way of life.” 

FUNKE’s focus is on three busi­ness divi­si­ons: Regio­nal Media, Maga­zi­nes and FUNKE Digi­tal. FUNKE thri­ves on the diver­sity of its company loca­ti­ons and products — but above all on the diver­sity of its employees: Around 1,700 jour­na­lists and around 3,000 media makers work every day to deli­ver one thing for readers and custo­mers: Top performance.
— https://www.funkemedien.de