After nearly two centuries in newspapers, John Menzies is to demerge its links with Fleet Street to concentrate on looking after aircraft.
Yesterday it announced a merger with DX, a specialist courier company, that effectively reverses Menzies’ newspaper and magazines logistics business into DX’s stock market listing.
DX, a minnow with a market capitalisation of £20 million, will pay John Menzies £40 million for its distribution business and will issue new DX shares to John Menzies, worth the equivalent of 60 per cent of the enlarged merged business.
New DX shares, equivalent to 5 per cent of the enlarged group, will be handed to the John Menzies pensions scheme. Existing DX investors will have 65 per cent of the new group.