KKR has reached a deal to split German media giant Axel Springer—which owns Business Insider and Politico—and take over the company’s classified-ads business, leaving billionaire CEO Mathias Döpfner to assume control of the media unit.
The classifieds assets will be spun off as separate companies majority-owned by KKR and Canada’s CPP Investments. That includes jobs site StepStone and real estate classifieds publisher Aviv, which reportedly were were valued at about €10 billion ($11.2 billion).
The media business, which also includes German newspapers Bild and Wel and will be owned by Döpfner alongside the founder’s widow Friede Springer, is worth €3.5 billion, valuing the whole company at €13.5 billion ($15 billion).
Axel Springer was delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2020 after KKR bought the business at a $7.6 billion valuation alongside CPP Investments, PSP Investments and Partners Group. Axel Springer has made €1.9 billion worth of investments since then, including the reported more than $1 billion acquisition of Politico in 2021. In a statement, the company said its revenues have reached nearly €4 billion, and that 85% of its growth in 2023 came from digital channels.
The breakup could make it easier for KKR to negotiate an eventual exit of the classifieds business. A likely additional benefit is that the deal puts some distance between KKR and Axel Springer’s news media business, which has been in a prolonged dispute with former Bild editor Julian Reichelt. The two parties settled a lawsuit out of court last year.
The deal is expected to free up the remaining media company, which will be debt-free, to pursue expansion in new markets, including the English-language media market.
Axel Springer SECEO & Chairman Mathias Döpfner/Featured image by Chesnot/Getty Images
