Trinity Mirror pays £50.5m for HotGroup recruitment company

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 01-Sep-05, 09:00

LONDON – Trinity Mirror has confirmed it is buying on- and offline recruitment company HotGroup, the owner of Workthing.com, having had a cash offer of £50.5m recommended by its directors.

The offer of 20.25p a share represents a 30.2% premium on HotGroup's average closing share price of 15.55p during the 12-month period before Trinity Mirror's initial approach.

Trinity Mirror said it was continuing its recent strategy of acquisitions in key classified markets and the move would increase revenue diversification across recruitment services, online and print.

Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, said: "We see exciting opportunities for the management and continued development of the HotGroup alongside our existing recruitment advertising businesses."

HotGroup was founded in 1999 and has grown by making several acquisitions, most recently Workthing.com from Guardian Media Group for £6.7m. Its other sites include Hotrecruit.com, Planetrecruit.com and Jobsfinancial.com.

The acquistion is the third in as many months for the Daily Mirror owner.

In August, it bought the owner of financial recruitment site Gaapweb.com for an initial £10.5m and a further performance-related £2.6m. In July, it bought property website Smartnewhomes.com for an initial £11.3m and a further performance-related £5.3m.

It has also launched its own local recruitment sites and is about to relaunch the websites of national newspapers the Sunday Mirror and The People, as well as Scottish titles The Daily Record and The Sunday Mail.

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