Pearson agrees to sell 50% stake in The Economist Group for £469m

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Education and publishing company Pearson (Xetra: 858266 - news) has agreed to sell its 50% stake in The Economist Group for £469m in cash. Exor, the investment vehicle run by Italy's Agnelli family - the founders of Fiat (Hanover: FIA1.HA - news) - has agreed to purchase 27.8% of the group's ordinary shares for a consideration of £227.5m and all of the B special shares for £59.5m.

The remaining ordinary shares will be repurchased by the Economist Group for £182m.

Proceeds from the transaction, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2015, will be used by Pearson for general corporate purposes and investment in its global education strategy.

Chief executive John Fallon said: "Pearson is now 100% focused on our global education strategy. The world of education is changing rapidly and we see great opportunity to grow our business through increasing access to high quality learning globally." The sale comes after Pearson completed the sale of the Financial Times to Japan's Nikkei in an £844m deal. The group is withdrawing from its publishing operations to focus on its core education business.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) fell 0.56% to 1,165p at 0935 BST.