Sanoma makes bolt-on acquisition in Learning

Translation: Original published in Finnish on 5/4/2026 at 7:00 am EEST.

The acquisition of Vicens Vives complements Sanoma's Learning offering in the Spanish market, where it has a strong foothold due to the Santillana acquisitions. Thus, we estimate that the small bolt-on acquisition now announced offers synergy potential, and with a moderate acquisition price, we see it as a good capital allocation target. Overall, we believe the acquisition is fully in line with the company's growth strategy and the valuation of the arrangement is quite reasonable.

Vicens Vives is a provider of K-12 learning materials

Sanoma announced on Thursday that it has acquired Vicens Vives, a provider of K-12 learning materials in Spain. With this acquisition, Sanoma's Learning business strengthens its position in the large Spanish learning services market, where it is the market leader. Vicens Vives is a Catalan provider of learning materials, which we understand focuses on materials for subjects such as languages, history, and geography. We understand that the acquired company's offering complements Learning's local offering, and there are no significant overlaps with Learning's current offering. Vicens Vives' 2025 revenue was 29 MEUR, and its profitability, according to our calculations, was slightly over 20% on an adjusted EBITDA basis, which is a very good level. The figures correspond to just under 4% (revenue) and over 2% (adjusted EBITDA) of Learning's comparable 2025 figures, making this a small acquisition in the context of the Learning business.

A bolt-on acquisition in line with the playbook

Complementary acquisitions in Learning's current operating countries are in line with Sanoma's growth strategy and, in our view, offer an attractive target for capital reallocation. At the Capital Markets Day at the end of last year, Sanoma stated that it has historically achieved 10-20% synergies (calculated from revenue) in acquisitions of this type, and we estimate that the acquisition now announced also offers similar synergy potential. Thus, we consider the acquisition to be very good from a strategic perspective.

The purchase price for the acquisition is 40 MEUR (EV), which corresponds to a valuation multiple of 6.8x calculated on adjusted EBITDA. This is a moderate level, and considering the synergy potential, we estimate that the arrangement can achieve a clearly double-digit return on invested capital. This is an attractive level and clearly above Sanoma's cost of capital. Against this backdrop, we consider the acquisition's valuation to be quite reasonable and believe its value creation potential is attractive. Sanoma has financed the acquisition with a new bilateral short-term loan arrangement, which it can well afford due to its strong financial position.

The deal entered into force on April 30, so the acquired entity is included in Learning's figures starting from May 1. We will include the acquisition in our estimates in connection with Sanoma's Q1'26 earnings report to be published on May 7.