EMAP’s Petersen Buy Offers Consolidation Opportunities And Cultural Fit

The acquisition of US publisher Petersen by EMAP at the end of last year (see EMAP Makes £720m US Move) has been described by securities group, Merrill Lynch, as offering better consolidation opportunities and cultural fit for EMAP than another new market in Europe would have. EMAP currently already has operations running in France.

Merrill Lynch says that Petersen is the perfect platform for EMAP as it has strong market positions in ‘enthusiast’ magazines for a young, male audience. The securities research company also says that EMAP should still hold ‘acquisition firepower’ following the completion of the takeover and is expected to make add-on acquisitions accordingly.

Petersen, which will cost EMAP £720 million to acquire, currently has a portfolio of over 130 specialist interest magazines, reaching around 77 million readers each month in the US. The company is ranked 22nd in the chart of top US magazine publishers. Over here EMAP comes in at third place amongst the top UK consumer magazine publishers with a total circulation of around 8.5 million copies.

The Petersen buy is a perfect opportunity for EMAP to launch FHM, one of its flagship titles, into the North American marketplace.

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