SevenVentures: Successful Sale of Media-for-Equity Participations
28 Jun 2017
– Strategic partnership with leading private equity firm Lexington Partners –
– Sales proceeds amount to a mid-double-digit million Euro figure –
Munich – June 28, 2017
SevenVentures, ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE’s financial investor, has successfully sold a large part of its media-for-equity portfolio to the leading private equity firm Lexington Partners. As part of the transaction, up to 16 minority participations of SevenVentures and other Group companies will be transferred to the new “Crosslantic Capital” fund. Lexington Partners is acquiring the majority of this fund, while SevenVentures will remain involved as a strategic media partner with a minority stake of approximately 24.5%. Sales proceeds amount to a mid-double-digit million Euro figure. In regards to the media and cash investments made, ProSiebenSat.1 Group doubled the value and generated an IRR of around 30%.
Crosslantic Capital is managed by Sascha van Holt, who was previously responsible for SevenVentures’ investments as Managing Director. Besides the development of the current portfolio companies, Crosslantic Capital will also invest in further promising digital companies.
Sabine Eckhardt, Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Board member of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE: “With the value of our media and cash investments doubled, we have significantly increased the market value of the SevenVentures investments through TV advertising on our stations, which has been to the advantage of both parties. This further underscores the success and the sustainability of our media-for-equity model.”
Pål Ristvedt, Partner at Lexington Partners: “We are delighted to be offering an attractive solution to ProSiebenSat.1 while investing in a portfolio of high-quality media-driven assets. We look forward to further increasing the value together with Sascha van Holt, and our strategic partners SevenVentures and ProSiebenSat.1.”
SevenVentures was founded by ProSiebenSat.1 in 2009 and operates a flexible investment model consisting of minority investments and media co-operations, where companies receive financial support, TV advertising time and other services in return for equity or revenue shares. ProSiebenSat.1 sells the shares at a later date once their value has been increased through TV advertising. SevenVentures will continue pursuing media-for-equity and media-for-revenue business. The company is managed by Florian Pauthner (CEO) and Stefan Beitz (CFO). Pauthner has been in the SevenVentures management team since January 1, 2015; Beitz came on board at the start of 2017.
About SevenVentures
SevenVentures is the leading TV media investor worldwide. As the investment arm of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group, SevenVentures is the ideal partner for fast-growing B2C companies, particularly in the consumer goods, retail, and services sector, with the potential to achieve sustainable success through the use of TV advertising. The example of Zalando has shown how a company can rapidly become a market leader or familiar brand. SevenVentures also supports companies seeking international growth with media power, capital, and all the other services of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group. Together with the group network consisting of leading European media companies, they always find the right path to growth.
