Italy's Mondadori will buy Emap's French magazine assets for €545 million to make it the third-largest magazine publisher in France.
Mondadori, controlled by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's family, said yesterday the acquisition price equalled 9.2 times the earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation of Emap France.
The price of the deal is below the estimates of most analysts, which average around €585 million.
Mondadori, publisher of women's weekly Graziaand former Pope John Paul II's writings, said it would finance the acquisition through credit lines and its available liquidity.
Emap bowed to investor pressure in February and said it would sell the French publisher of FHMand Closerafter its TV listings guides suffered against new rivals and caused a drag on the UK media group's profit.
The deal will mark Mondadori's first major expansion beyond the Italian market. By Deutsche Bank estimates, it could increase its earnings per share by around a quarter.