Solocal Group Closes the Sale of Horyzon Media and Focuses Its Businesses on Local Search and Digital Marketing

Regulatory News:

Divestment from 4 businesses

Solocal Group (Paris:LOCAL), European leader in local online communication, announced today that it has closed the sale of Horyzon Media. The divestment plan of unprofitable and not growing Internet businesses announced in April is now completed. Solocal Group hence divests from the 4 following Internet businesses:

• disposal made of the Horyzon Media Internet display agency;
• disposal made of the ZoomOn local social media;
• discontinuation made of Lookingo’s ‘daily deals’;
• divestment in progress from Sotravo’s business providing online home project quotes.

In 2014, these businesses generated revenues of €15 million and negative EBITDA of €-11 million, and employed 140 persons. The impact of these divestments on the Group’s cash position is not material.

Refocusing of the Internet businesses

Following these divestments, Solocal Group focuses on two Internet businesses in which it intends to acquire or consolidate a leading position.

Local Search

This business generates annual revenues of approximately €500 million, experiencing a slight growth. It consists of local communication services that the Group offers on its own websites, such as PagesJaunes, Mappy, Ooreka (the new name of ComprendreChoisir) and A Vendre A Louer, or with its partners, in particular Google, Bing, Apple and Facebook.

Digital Marketing

This business generates annual revenues of approximately €135 million, and is growing rapidly. To expand significantly in these areas, Solocal Group will concentrate on 3 product lines:

• Transactional services: in particular, making appointments with doctors (PagesJaunes Doc), making reservations or ordering meals from restaurants (PagesJaunes Resto), and offering deals provided by clients. Solocal Group is abandoning ‘daily deals’, which generated little customer loyalty, and will focus on deals provided by PagesJaunes, which are more highly valued by its clients.
• Local programmatic: when selling Horyzon Media, Solocal Group is disposing of an over the counter display business and will focus solely on local programmatic, which offers the most promising growth opportunities. The Group is increasing its investments in this technology and taking advantage of its local database and the success of its ADhesive offer, which was launched at the beginning of the year.
• Websites and contents: this product line is currently the Group’s flagship digital marketing activity. The Group has a significant international presence through its partners and subsidiaries (QDQ, Leadformance, Solocal UK) and will continue to develop these activities in order to offer its customers the most effective possible promotion of their local know-how.

About Solocal Group

Solocal Group, the European market leader in local online communication, provides digital content, advertising solutions and transactional services that simply connect people with local businesses. The Group employs some 4,800 people (including nearly 2,300 local communication advisors) in France, Spain, Austria and the United Kingdom and supports the online development of SMB and major client accounts, mainly through its four flagship brands: PagesJaunes, Mappy, ComprendreChoisir and A Vendre A Louer. Over the years, Solocal Group has earned the trust of some 550,000 Internet clients. In 2014, Solocal Group generated revenues of 936 million euros, of which Internet business accounted for 68%, making it a European market leader in terms of online advertising revenues. Solocal Group is listed on Euronext Paris (LOCAL). More information may be obtained at www.solocalgroup.com.

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