APN buys majority share of e-commerce site BrandsExclusive
Media company APN has bought a majority share of online e-commerce site BrandsExclusive in a bid to boost its digital delivery capabilities. BrandsExclusive, which claims to be “Australia’s largest private shopping club,” has 1.7m members on its database.
BrandsExclusive launched in 2008 and offers consumers discounted goods from well-known brands. Co-founders Daniel Jarosch and Rolf Weber were also involved in group buying site Spreets.com.au, which is a competitor to APN’s own site grabone.com.au, but are not longer involved in its day to day management.
APN made an investment of $36m which gives it a 82% equity stake. BrandsExclusive is expected to deliver turnover of $70m in 2012. An additional payment of up to $30m will be made, subject to the site achieving earnings targets for 2013. The company predicts this investment will represent an increase of seven or eight times the existing EBITDA for 2013.
In February APN sold half of its out of home advertising arm, APN Outdoor after posting a 14% reduction in profit for 2011.
Matt Crockett, pictured, chief development officer at APN told Mumbrella that the move was consistent with APN’s strategy but represented “an acceleration of that strategy. We think digital marketing isn’t just about display; we think the potential for growth is in transactional sites like BrandsExclusive, which will be a key priority for the next few years. We are looking for other digital opportunities, sensible bolt-ons or partnerships like this one, and we think Daniel and Rolf are two of the smartest digital marketers in Australasia.”
Brett Chenoweth, chief executive at APN said in a press release: “This investment is a significant move towards repositioning APN for growth and will substantially ramp up our digital revenue and earnings trajectory. We believe there is tremendous value to be unlocked in the global shift towards eCommerce which will be a core part of the digital media landscape in the future. I expect this will be one of the largest digital deals in Australia this year, emphasizing the importance which we place on having the right digital assets.”
Nice earn for the guys involved. Well done but what are APN thinking. Do they think they can transition from a media player to a retailer. Also apart from a bunch of money I can’t imagine how APN help Brands Exclusive. They know nothing about retail. I suspect this will be like the Yahoo purchase of Spreets. The kiss of death.
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Agree! No retail experience in a competitive low margin business. If they start to use their shrinking papers to heavily promote the site I’m sure their bread and butter local advertisers will be annoyed at them now competing with them. Great buy local campaign APN!
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