Gimv sells stake in Dutch ANP to V-Ventures

Gimv sells its stake in ANP (the Netherlands’ national news agency) to V-Ventures, the part of Association Veronica undertaking commercial activities in the Dutch media landscape. V-Ventures also acquires the shares of NPM Capital and of the management, so becoming the sole owner of ANP, which will continue to operate independently within V-Ventures.

ANP (www.anp.nl) is the most important news supplier in the Netherlands for newspapers, radio, television and the internet. ANP is headquartered in Rijswijk and operates bureaus in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Brussels. ANP has an extensive network of reporters and journalists of international press agencies and publishes more than 60,000 news stories and 58,000 photographs a year. The company’s local position in the Netherlands is comparable to those of Belgian press agency Belga and German DPA (Deutsche Presseagentur).

ANP was founded in 1934 by the daily newspapers in the Netherlands (NDP). Since its inception the company has evolved following the rapidly changing media landscape and since 2001 ANP operates independently. As part of the syndicate that closed the management buyout in 2004, Gimv acquired a stake of 15 percent in ANP, which was raised in 2007 to 43 percent.

The sale has a positive impact of EUR 1.0 million (EUR 0.04 per share) on Gimv’s last published equity value at 31 March 2010. The shareholding’s value increased mainly during the previous accounting years. Over the entire investment period the shareholding’s return was satisfactory. No further financial details on this transaction will be disclosed.