Solocal approves Ycor’s offer – 03/13/2024 at 11:16


(AOF) – Second strongest decline in the SRD market, Solocal (-28.88% to 0.06 euros) collapsed on the stock market this Wednesday after two sessions in the green. The former publisher of the famous Yellow Pages, converted to digital marketing for small and medium-sized businesses, indicated that it had received two offers as part of its financial restructuring. The first comes from bondholders and provides for a liquidity contribution exclusively in debt. The second comes from the Ycor company and combines exclusively capital contributions and industrial synergies.

Solocal supports that of Ycor, “the only proposal, at this stage, likely to ensure its sustainability and which can be implemented with the support of senior lenders”.

Massive dilution in sight

“Ycor’s offer, in addition to proposing a substantial reduction in debt, the weight of which had become overwhelming and securing the group’s liquidity, should allow Solocal to benefit from the solutions and expertise developed by this player for several years and to generate synergies in a short time horizon”, supports Cédric Dugardin, general manager of Solocal.

If the offer is accepted, Ycor would thus become the majority shareholder of the group with 76% of the capital and the current shareholders of Solocal Group would be massively diluted since their existing shares would represent less than 1% of the capital.

AOF – LEARN MORE

Learn more about the Media sector

Artificial intelligence, threat or opportunity for professional and specialized press publishers?

After having fought for the tech giants to pay them for related rights, press publishers are worried about the use of their data for the benefit of artificial intelligence (AI). Generative AI feeds on information it finds on the internet, including that from the media. The latter can, however, prevent the use of their data by an AI thanks to the 2019 European directive and its translation into French law, which governs the search for texts and data. However, this remains theoretical. In the meantime, certain specialized players in the publishing world are working to reassure investors after the loss of value on the stock market of certain companies. Thus professional information specialists, or publishers of academic publications, such as RELX, Pearson or Wolters Kluwer are multiplying reassuring messages and presenting AI more as an opportunity than a threat by emphasizing that they themselves use AI. ‘AI. Analysts generally remain confident in these specialized publishing players because their strong asset is based on the reliability of the information they transmit, which is still far from being the case for AI. For now…



Source link -86