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Tidningsförlaget Aller Media has terminated its current publishing agreement and Bonnier News, which has announced its intention to terminate its publishing agreements with Ready. Bonnier News includes Expressen, Dagens Nyheter, and the company also owns Dagens industri.
The message comes from Readly, which will be listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange on Thursday.
“We are disappointed with the decision of Aller and Bonnier. Our readers appreciate their content. But Readly is an international company with 800 publishers in 11 countries. Our largest market is Germany. Therefore, the effect is not large enough to affect our strategy and our opportunities to achieve our long-term financial goals, “Maria Hedengren, CEO of Readly, tells Di.
According to Readly, the eight so-called “cornerstone” investors have informed Readly that this does not affect their commitment to participate in the offering, with a total amount of SEK 390 million.
It will raise a total of SEK 450 million through a new share issue that values the company at just under SEK 2.2 billion and is now listed on Thursday. Do you stick to that?
“The share registry has already been oversubscribed many times. And the eight “cornerstone” investors are meeting their commitments. We have no reason to believe that the listing will not go according to plan, ”says the CEO.
Readly has now submitted an additional prospectus to Finansinspektionen, which they expect to be approved on Monday, according to information from Di Digital. Small savers who have signed up have until Wednesday to repent before trading on Thursday. If the process is not delayed, of course.
Readly CEO Maria Hedengren emphasizes that the resignations of Allers and Bonnier will have no effect on Readly content until next year at the earliest.
The agreement with Aller expires in March 2021. The agreements with Bonnier are expected to expire on different dates until the second half of next year. Bonnier content would be removed step by step in 2021, according to the CEO.
“When you go on the journey we do, ongoing negotiations with publishers are part of everyday life. This can be seen on other platforms like Spotify and Storytel. We are continuing negotiations and hope to resolve this. My ambition is that there are no interruptions, ”says Maria Hedengren.
In total, Aller and Bonnier magazine titles (including Expressen) contribute just under 4% of the total number of Readly magazine titles, but this corresponds to just over 30% of Swedish titles. Aller and Bonnier are described in the prospectus as Readly’s largest publisher in Sweden, along with Egmont Publishing.
The CEO of Readly does not want to go into the reasons for the terminated deals. But he believes that Readly’s offering is attractive in the long term for content providers.
“We are convinced that our offering appeals to the majority of European newspaper publishers. They get a new source of income at no charge, access to a wide audience of readers and valuable data to support their business, ”he says.
Read more: Bonnier CEO sees no future in Readly: “Pay too low”
Readly believes that the average annual growth rate, in particular, will not be affected, thus falling short of the medium-term annual growth target of 30-35 percent. However, growth in 2021 may be less than previously estimated. The company also does not expect any impact on long-term financial targets to achieve a 35 percent gross margin and achieve a positive EBITDA result in 4-5 years.
Read more: The founder is selling big on the super hype – don’t sign Readly
