Groupe Moniteur in secondary buyout

French-Canadian private equity group Sagard has acquired Groupe Moniteur from a consortium of private equity investors in a €275m secondary buyout.

Le Moniteur, a leading French publisher in the building and local authorities sector, was a division of Aprovia acquired from Vivendi Universal in June 2002 by a private equity consortium led by Cinven and comprising Carlyle and Apax Partners.

The acquisition of Vivendi’s business and healthcare publishing activities was made through two holding companies; Aprovia for the business publishing and Santemedia for the healthcare publications. The total cost of the acquisition was €1.2bn with Cinven taking a 37.5% stake, Carlyle with 28%, Vivendi Universal with 25% and Apax with 9.5%.

Le Moniteur is the second realisation from the Aprovia business for its investors. Last July United Business Media bought Aprovia UK for £79m in cash, equivalent to nine times the company’s 2002 EBITDA.