SanomaWSOY completes its acquisition of Malmberg

SanomaWSOY completes its acquisition of Malmberg

SanomaWSOY's division WSOY has today completed its acquisition of Malmberg Investments B.V., an educational publisher operating in the Netherlands and Belgium. The Sales and Purchase Agreement was signed on 15 July 2004. The enterprise value is EUR 221.9 million. The Dutch and the Belgian competition authorities as well as Malmberg?s works council have approved the deal.

Malmberg's figures will be consolidated with WSOY and SanomaWSOY Group as of 15 July in the fourth quarter of 2004. Due to the timing of the acquisition, the effect of the deal on SanomaWSOY's and its division WSOY?s profit will be minor in 2004, but clearly positive as of 2005.

Together with Malmberg, WSOY's net sales (pro forma 2003) amount to EUR 305.0 million. Educational publishing will form its own business, WSOY Educational, with operations in the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and Poland. Finnish operations will form a new unit, WSOY Educational Finland.