WTKWY Wolters Kluwer (PK)

By Dominic Chopping

STOCKHOLM--Swedish legal, tax and accounting publisher Karnov Group AB said Thursday that it has agreed to acquire Wolters Kluwer NV's French and Spanish legal-information businesses and Thomson Reuters Corp.'s Spanish legal-information business for a combined 160 million euros ($180.9 million) in cash.

Karnov said it will buy Wolters Kluwer France SAS, Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory Espana, SA and Editorial Aranzadi SAU, giving it a strong market presence in Spain and France and providing a platform for a strengthened customer offering and further international expansion.

The proposed acquisitions would give the combined group preliminary unaudited pro forma revenue of 992.8 million Swedish kronor ($109.5 million) and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of SEK292.9 million for the six-month period ended June 30. Karnov considers the deal to be significantly EPS accretive.

"By combining the best content and platform and leverage on best practice, Karnov can create a strong market presence in Spain and France and create a basis for further development of the local businesses," Karnov said.

"Karnov will be well-positioned to realize cost efficiency opportunities in Spain to generate fully phased run-rate in-market synergies, on an Ebitda level of up to approximately EUR10 million with full effect in 2026 and expects the costs of achieving this to amount to a total of up to approximately EUR24 million," it added.

Completion of the deal is expected to occur during 2022, subject to clearance by the Spanish antitrust authority, it added.

Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 09, 2021 03:33 ET (08:33 GMT)

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