Executives at CurtCo Media Labs, publisher of The Robb Report, Worth and other magazines targeting the rich, decided to put the company up for sale after receiving a call from Goldman Sachs earlier this year. Dan Galpern, coo, said the company has been fielding phone calls from strategic and financial buyers for years, but recently noticed they were becoming more frequent. Then a call from Goldman and the conversations that followed sealed it, he said. “When Goldman called and asked us to consider letting them take us to market, we listened,” he said. CurtCo then hired Goldman Sachs to conduct a sale and provide staple financing. Galpern said there’s no timetable for the sale. One financier tracking the auction said the strongest contenders appear to be publishers but refused to name any.
Goldman has handled a slew of high profile auctions in recent months, including the sale of the newspaper chain Knight Ridder. In the first quarter, Goldman handled more M&A volume and received more revenue from M&A than any other investment bank worldwide, according to data provider Dealogic. It managed $307 billion in deals, generating $338 million in fees.
Galpern refused to discuss the price he expects the private company to fetch or name any of the prospective buyers. The company is owned by CurtCo Media Group, Weston Presidio and TD Capital and has around $100 million in revenue. Similar public companies trade for 20X EBITDA, a banker said.
An industry official said a buzz has followed CurtCo around for years. Stuffed with advertisements from private jet dealers and companies such as Rolls-Royce, the magazine aims at readers with more than $5 million in liquid assets, a slice of the population that has doubled in the past year. Goldman approached the company on a hunch the business was strong and found it was once it got a look at the books, the official said.