Sanoma Oyj (HLSE:SAA1V) agreed to acquire K12 learning content business for an enterprise value of €190 million from Pearson plc (LSE:PSON) on June 7, 2022. Sanoma will finance the acquisition with debt and has signed an underwritten 4-year term loan facility with Nordea Bank Abp, OP Corporate Bank plc and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ). After closing, the acquired businesses will be reported as part of Sanoma Learning SBU. Sanoma will book approximately €3 million of transaction costs as IACs in Sanoma Learning's Q2 2022 result. The remaining transaction costs of approximately €5 million will be booked at closing. The transaction is expected to be finalised during third quarter of 2022. BNP Paribas SA (ENXTPA:BNP) acted as financial advisor to Pearson plc (LSE:PSON). The Italian and German local K12 Courseware businesses had gross assets of €158 million and net assets of €126 million as at 31 December 2021.The businesses generated €105 million of revenue and €10.5 million of adjusted operating profit in 2021. The enterprise value represents an EV / 2021 EBITDA multiple of 15.5x.

J.P. Morgan SE acted as financial advisor to Sanoma Oyj in this deal. Christoph Nawroth, Moritz Kunz, Ina vom Feld, Sven Wortberg of Herbert Smith Freehills Germany, Gavin Davies, Veronica Roberts, Isaac Zailer, Christine Young, Paul Ellerman, Jonathan Turnbull of Herbert Smith Freehills United kingdom, Aaron White of Herbert Smith Freehills Australia, Francesca Morra and Pietro Pouché of Herbert Smith Freehills Italy acted as legal advisor to Pearson plc. LCA Studio Legale acted as legal advisor to Pearson plc. From Amsterdam lead by Gregory Crookes and Rona Nisar, and the core team consisted of Luc van Oosterhout, Olivia Higgs, Shaun Campbell (Corporate), Orsolya Gondos, Jaap Tempelman, Andrei Mikes, Tamlin Higgins (TMT), Michiel Sunderman and Alec Sanderson (Tax) in Amsterdam, Umberto Penco Salvi, Amedeo Sciolari and Dario Carnazza (Corporate M&A) in Milan and Margret Bootz-Hagen (Corporate) in Frankfurt. The wider team consisted of Yvo van Bijsterveld (Corporate), Frans Muller and Jurre Jurriëns (Antitrust) in Amsterdam, Claudia Milbradt, Nicolas Hohn-Hein (IP) and Cord Freiherr von Mandelsloh (Tax) in Düsseldorf, Jörg Rhiel, Michael Nellen, Natalie Hemberger (Corporate), Olaf Mertgen (Tax), Stefan Simon, Ulrike Breidenstein (Employment), Philipp Stoecker and Ahmad Zaheri (Real Estate) in Frankfurt, Simonetta Candela, Marina Mobiglia (Employment), Luca Fulgido, Sara Bettoni, Greta Bilotta (Corporate), Andrea Tuninetti Ferrari, Ludovica D'Alberti, Andrea Sgrilli, Mario Martignago (Tax), Andrea Andolina and Giovanni Minucci (L&DR) in Milan, Luciano Di Via, Antonio Mirabile, Eleonora Zappalorto, Luca Borin and Alessandra Oliva (Antitrust) in Rome and Jemma Dick, Nicola Hemsley and Eli Bursky (Tax) in London of Clifford Chance acted as legal advisors to Sanoma in the transaction.


Sanoma Oyj (HLSE:SAA1V) completed the acquisition of K12 learning content business for an enterprise value of €190 million from Pearson plc (LSE:PSON) on August 31, 2022.