DLG "not up for sale" despite Icelandic parent's woes

by Noelle McElhatton, Marketing Direct 09-Oct-08, 13:14

LONDON - DLG, one of the UK's four leading consumer data vendors, has denied that it is has been put up for sale by the administrators of its parent, Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (KS&F), the UK arm of Iceland's biggest bank.

Jeremy Whitaker, chief executive of DLG, says it is business as usual for the company despite the woes of its parent, which was put into administration yesterday by the UK government as part of its guarantee of UK deposits in Icelandic accounts.

"It doesn’t impact our position to do business at all as we don’t do our retail banking through Kaupthing, Whitaker said. We have money in the bank and our ability to trade is unaffected."

Whitaker said the most likely scenario for DLG was that it would be taken over as part of any acquisition of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, or that the company would seek another investor once it is allowed by KS&F administrators Ernst & Young to do so.

"Judging by the amount of calls we’ve had over the past few days offering funding, then finding another partner won’t be a problem, Whitaker said. [But] we are not in a sale process unless someone comes in with an extraordinary offer that is in the shareholders’ interest."

Whitaker denied that the decline in demand for postal data – once DLG’s core business – made it vulnerable to the prospect of a fire sale. "Seventy per cent of our business model is digital in terms of data manufacturing and the way we deliver data, as well as our ability to do email marketing broadcast ourselves."

The company was making changes to its business plan in response to the financial crisis and economic downturn. "We are looking carefully at how DM is going to evolve and our business plan has moved towards more digital work and DLG becoming a data hub and a media owner."

DLG is the most high profile player caught up in the turmoil hitting the global financial markets.

Kaupthing was nationalised by Iceland’s government earlier this week. It is a key player in the British economy by taking stakes in many high street names, including Mitchells & Butlers, the pub group, and Debenhams, the department store chain. DLG is its sole direct marketing investment.