The deal Future has announced the acquisition of Dennis Publishing, which includes Wealth, Knowledge and B2B tech titles, from Exponent Private Equity, with the deal set to complete on the 1st October. Future is paying c.£300m (15.0x trailing EBITDA) for the business, funded by existing debt facilities. The deal is expected to be materially earnings enhancing in the first full year of ownership, with cost synergies of £5m per annum from 2023 – Future flags that it expects to rapidly de-lever to below 1.5x after completion. The rationale Future is looking to scale its new wealth vertical, diversify revenue through more subscriptions (75% of Dennis revenue), extend its reach further in North America (56% Dennis revenue in the US), deepen expertise within the B2B tech vertical, and enhance the group’s “knowledge” vertical which typically sees high subscription rates. Our view Many investors will see this as more of a “business as usual” acquisition from Future – acquisition of a majority print subscription business, although in this case the key brands are growing circa double digit, rather than in managed decline, with clear opportunities to drive the digital side from a low base. In our view, the acquisition of titles including MoneyWeek and Kipling provide key additional depth in content in the business’s new Personal & Home Wealth (which includes GoCo) with the additional 1st party data from subscribers a help in providing advertising clients with highly qualified targets. We like the focus on growing recurring revenues in the mix, and await more detail on the opportunity to monetise the knowledge sector in the meeting at 8am. We place our forecasts and target price under review.