New UK radio industry players Global Traffic Network has agreed to purchase the commercial division of UBC Media Group for £15million, subject to contract and UBC shareholder approval.
UBC's commercial division supplies traffic, news and entertainment information to around 250 UK radio stations in exchange for commercials that are then sold to advertisers.
Global Traffic Network currently provides travel news to JACK fm, FM107.9 and the UKRD group. Its management team currently consists of Paul Hutton, managing director, Kim Applegarth, operations director and Anthony Rudd, head of radio.
The planned acquisition is subject to completion of due diligence and negotiation of a mutually acceptable share purchase agreement and is expected to close, subject among other things to approval by UBC's shareholders, on or before 31 July, 2008.
Simon Cole, Chief Executive of UBC commented: "The commercial team at UBC has spent 12 years building up the leading networking business in the UK and now it is time for that to be part of a bigger international operation. I'm absolutely delighted to be working with Global Traffic Network to make that happen and to demonstrate to shareholders the value of what we have created. The UK radio market is developing very fast as consolidation takes hold and I am very confident that GTN can look forward to maintaining and building the strong business we have developed here.'
William L. Yde III, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Global Traffic Network, commented: "We are extremely excited about the acquisition of the commercial division of UBC, as it will dramatically increase our footprint in the United Kingdom, adding approximately 250 radio stations throughout the United Kingdom. With approximately 22.7 million dollars in annual revenues and approximately 1.8 million dollars net contribution after overhead, the acquisition not only significantly expands our business in the UK, it dramatically increases the size and scope of Global Traffic Network as a whole. The stations currently serviced by the commercial division of UBC have a non-duplicated reach of approximately 16.7 million listeners weekly, which is greater than our combined reach in Australia and Canada."
UBC's instant music buying service CLIQ, and independent production business is not part of their commercial division.
