Politico owner Axel Springer strikes deal with KKR to split off media business

By Louis Goss

Politico owner Axel Springer has reached an agreement with its top shareholder KKR to separate its portfolio of media assets from its fast-growing classified advertisements business.

In a statement, Axel Springer said the deal will see its media assets - including Business Insider and Die Welt - spun off into a private company controlled by Friede Springer, the widow of the Politico owner's founder, and Mathias Döpfner, the firm's current CEO.

Private equity giant KKR will separately take control of Axel Springer's classified advertising assets which includes property listings company Aviv Group, online trading company finanzen.net and jobs platform The Stepstone Group.

KKR's deal with Axel Springer, which is reported by the Financial Times to be worth EUR13.5 billion ($15 billion), is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approval. Axel Springer declined to comment on the value of the deal.

Together, Friede Springer and Mathias Döpfner will own almost 98% of shares in the new media company which, alongside Bild and Die Welt, will own news aggregator site Upday. Axel Sven Springer, one of Axel Springer's grandchildren, will own the remaining 2% of the new company's shares.

"It was Mathias Döpfner's and my vision that one day, Axel Springer would again be a privately owned and operated company. The realization of this vision now fills me with great joy," Friede Springer said in a statement.

Private equity giant KKR first became Axel Springer's largest shareholder in 2019 after it bought a 43.54% stake in the German media empire for EUR2.9 billion, in a deal that took the Berlin firm private.

Axel Springer - which owns top German newspapers including Bild and Die Welt alongside online publications including Politico and Business Insider - was first started in 1946 by journalist Axel Springer.

The media conglomerate's flagship Bild newspaper quickly became the top selling tabloid in West Germany. Axel Springer later acquired the broadsheet newspaper Die Welt in 1953, just a few years after it was first started by British forces occupying Germany.

The newspaper business later launched an initial public offering in 1985. Later that year, company founder Axel Springer died and ownership of the firm transferred to his widow Friede Springer.

In September 2015, Axel Springer acquired an 88% stake in business news website Business Insider for $343 million in cash. In 2021, the media company also acquired a 100% stake in Politico, in a deal reportedly worth more than $1 billion.

Axel Springer first acquired a majority stake in The Stepstone Group in 2009 having first bought shares in the jobs listing board a year earlier. The media conglomerate later fully acquired Aviv Group in 2021 for EUR200 million.

-Louis Goss

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09-19-24 0833ET

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