UPDATE 1-Pearson sells German Financial Times
(Adds detail, background)
LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - British-based educational publisher Pearson Plc (PSON.L) said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell its 50 percent stake in German daily Financial Times Deutschland to publishing house Gruner + Jahr.
The deal, which marks the end of Pearson's foray into FT-branded foreign language newspaper ventures, will give Gruner + Jahr full control of the German daily and is expected to complete in the first quarter, Pearson said.
Pearson declined to provide details on the financial terms of the transaction, which is small in the context of the group.
Recent newspaper reports said Gruner + Jahr was expected to pay about half of a 15-20 million euros price upfront, with the rest coming from an annual licence to use the FT brand and Financial Times content.
Pearson said its share of the gross assets of FT Deutschland was approximately 8 million euros ($11.9 million) at the end of December.
Financial Times Group Chief Executive Rona Fairhead said the disposal comes as her division focuses more on the global expansion of the Financial Times and digital financial information businesses.
Gruner + Jahr is known mostly as a publisher of magazines, such as Gala and GEO. It publishes more than 300 magazines in 24 countries and owns stakes in eastern German newspapers Saechsische Zeitung as well as Dresdner and Chemnitzer Morgenpost. Gruner + Jahr is owned by media group Bertelsmann [BERT.UL].
Pearson sold its Spanish newspaper group Recoletos to the company's management in 2004 and France's business daily Les Echos to luxury goods group LVMH in July last year.
London-based Pearson, headed by Chief Executive Marjorie Scardino, began its FT Deutschland partnership with Gruner + Jahr in 2000 in an effort to challenge Germany's leading business daily Handelsblatt.
The move marked the first national newspaper launch in Germany for more than 50 years and also the first time that a non-English newspaper carried the FT name. (Reporting by Miyoung Kim and Gavin Haycock; Editing by Paul Bolding)
