National World, a special purpose acquisitions company founded by David Montgomery and Vijay Vaghela to create a modern platform for news using the latest technology, acquired JPI Publishing Ltd, (“JPI Group”) on 2 January for £10.2 million.
Montfort has advised National World since IPO, led by Nick Miles with support from Olly Scott.
The JPI Group will provide a platform for National World to implement its strategy of creating a sustainable local online news publishing model. JPI Group is the UK’s third largest regional newspapers and websites publisher, with over 100 newspapers including The Scotsman, The Yorkshire Post, Belfast News Letter, Sheffield Star, Edinburgh Evening News, Portsmouth News and Lancashire Evening Post.
In the year ending 2 January 2021 the JPI Group will have estimated revenues of £85 million and EBITDA, (before exceptional costs) of £6 million. Estimated digital revenue for the period to 2 January 2021 is £17 million.
Commenting on the acquisition, National World’s Chairman, David Montgomery, said: “JPI’s historic publishing brands represent the best in journalism and have reliably served their communities and supported local businesses, in some cases for centuries, and never more than in the last year. National World will uphold this tradition and implement modern technology to grow the business across a wider footprint based on high quality, unique content.”