Eniro and Aller aim to make sol.no the leading portal in Norway
In order to increase traffic and revenues for sol.no, Eniro’s Internet portal in Norway, Eniro has reached an agreement with Norsk Aller AS to form a jointly owned company as of January 1, 2007. In addition to Eniro’s strong Internet search capabilities, the deal will provide SOL with increased media competence to make sol.no the leading Internet portal in Norway.
A new company will be formed to which the portal sol.no will be transferred. The company will be owned to 50.1% by Eniro and to 49.9% by Aller.
Eniro´s core Internet business is within search and online directories, where the portal business is supportive. In order to enhance the value for Eniro and make sol.no the leading Internet portal in Norway, Eniro has decided to enter into this jointly owned company with Aller. Aller will contribute to the portal with media competence and high-quality editorial content.
- In addition to a fair price for the shares in SOL, we expect that this partnership will make SOL an even better value creator for Eniro, says Eniro's President and CEO, Tomas Franzén.
Sol.no (www.sol.no) has a long history as an Internet portal and is currently the 10th largest website in the Norwegian online media landscape, with high brand recognition and approximately 700,000 unique browsers on a weekly basis. Sol.no is also an important traffic generator for Eniro's web search service Kvasir.no. SOL has about 30 employees.
Aller’s network of Internet services includes dinside.no, itavisen.no, femina.no and seher.no. The Aller Group has in total 760,000 unique browsers per week.
The terms of the deal
Eniro will retain 50.1% of the company while Aller will acquire a total of 49.9% in the newly created company Scandinavia Online AS (SOL). The new SOL will include assets from Eniro Norge AS relating to the existing sol.no operations. These include the portal, its organization and current operating assets and liabilities. In conjunction with the formation of sol.no, the company is provided with the necessary financial resources to reach future business targets.
The new company will preliminary be consolidated in Eniro Norway according to the Proportionate Consolidation method as of January 1, 2007.
Projected 2006 pro forma revenue for the current SOL operation is approximately
NOK 42 M, with EBITDA of approximately NOK 6 M. The capital gain for Eniro Norway is estimated at approximately NOK 100 M to be recognized in 2007.