Publishing group Future is acquiring the insurance comparison business GoCompare for a consideration of £594 million in cash and shares.
Sir Peter Wood, the largest shareholder in GoCompare with a 29.65 per cent stake, will receive £41 million in cash plus a stake of over 5 per cent in Future. Sir Peter has already made sales of significant businesses he founded, Direct Line and Esure which operates Sheila’s Wheels. He is also known to be one of the UK’s top 10 taxpayers.
Future which publishes magazine titles including Marie Claire and Country Life derives significant revenue from digital services. It is headed by a former Auto Trader director, Zillah Byng-Thorne who holds the CEO post.
Sir Peter said: “A few weeks ago Zillah came to me and said a deal makes a lot of sense given Future’s range of magazines. The biggest problem with price comparison sites is that there is four of us slugging it out with the biggest expense being the cost of acquisition. Future captures on in every three eyeballs in the UK, the same in the US, with hundreds of magazines, they can really help us with the costs of that.”
Earlier this year Future acquired TI Media which publishes titles ranging from Horse & Hound to NME. GoCompare will continue to operate from South Wales but it is understood that there may be some job losses.
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