Future, the Bath-based media group, has completed its £32m acquisition of rival Centaur Media’s home interest division in a move that brings three key brands to its portfolio – Homebuilding & Renovating, Period Living and Real Homes.
The division’s magazines have a circulation of more than 870,000, although around half of its revenue comes from exhibitions, with print accounting for around 36% and digital around 13%.
Last year its exhibitions attracted around 94,000 visitors and more than 1,700 exhibitors – up 6% on 2015.
Future, whose titles span technology, games, music, film, photography, creative & design, field sports and science & knowledge and include Techradar, PCGamer.com and T3, said the London-based business was a trusted resource to homebuilding and renovating communities, providing reliable guidance, information and tools.
Future is part funding the acquisition – the latest in a string of takeovers by the restructured group – by issuing new shares worth £22m.
Future chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne said: “This acquisition provides us with market leading access to an attractive vertical with clear growth potential.
“It will significantly boost our scale and momentum, while further diversifying our revenue streams, as we continue to build a global platform business for specialist media with data at its heart.”
The acquisition, announced last month, had to be approved by Centaur Media’s shareholders.