Platinum Equity, current owners of Exterion Media [1] would, in our humble opinion, have sold Exterion whether they won the recent Transport for London (TfL) Underground bid or not [2].
If Exterion had lost, Platinum would have got rid quickly but still made a tidy profit, thanks in FULL to the work that Shaun Gregory has / had done with the Bus business – a hugely profitable (if perhaps, sometimes unglamorous) part of their business.
Having won the tender however – against, lest we forget, a fiercely competitive JCDecaux, the value of the business is so much higher, so it is therefore, not unexpected that Platinum Equity should wish to cash in.
Cashing in – is exactly what they plan, we hear, as plans are afoot for a GBP 1 billion stock market flotation.
Platinum paid GBP 150 million for Exterion (nee CBS Outdoor) in October 2013 [3] so will certainly be sitting on a nice fat profit.