Roularta acquires gezondheid.be and passionsanté.be

Roularta Media Group (RMG) is acquiring 100% of Gezondheid NV, thus becoming the owner of the largest health websites in Belgium, namely gezondheid.be, passionsanté.be and minimi.be. Together with the health website gezondheidsnet.nl (100% RMG) in the Netherlands and the numerous health sections on RMG's various digital platforms in Belgium and the Netherlands, including knack.be, levif.be, artsenkrant.com/lejournaldumedecin.com, plus.be, plusonline.nl, libelle.be, femmesdaujourdhui.be and flair.be, this acquisition makes RMG the largest publisher of high‑quality online health information in Belgium and the Netherlands. As market leader, RMG can become an important partner for advertisers in the health sector in both Belgium and the Netherlands.

Gezondheid.be has 900,000 unique visitors per month and more than 1.5 million monthly page views. More than 100,000 readers subscribe to the health.be newsletters.

Passionsanté.be, its French language counterpart, has 700,000 unique monthly visitors and counts more than 825,000 monthly page views. 56,000 readers are subscribed to the newsletters of passionsanté.be.

Launched in 2019, Minimi.be is the reference for young parents who want to know everything about pregnancy and the first years of their child. Minimi.be has 172,000 monthly visitors and counts 282,000 monthly page views.

On March 29, 2022, RMG and the selling media groups Mediahuis and Rossel signed the agreement to transfer the shares of Gezondheid NV. The price for the acquisition amounts to EUR 500,000 (enterprise value). This transaction is expected to have a positive impact on Roularta Media Group's results already in 2022, as RMG is including the expected sales (estimated for 2022 at EUR 600,000) and EBITDA of Gezondheid NV in the consolidated figures from 1 April.

Xavier Bouckaert, CEO Roularta Media Group: "This transaction makes RMG the undisputed market leader in high‑quality online health information, not only in Belgium but also in the Netherlands, following the recent acquisition of gezondheidsnet.nl there. In addition, RMG is the publisher of Plus Gezond, the largest health magazine in the Netherlands, and annually organizes the Nationale Gezondheidsbeurs, the largest event in this field in the Netherlands. This acquisition offers us numerous opportunities in both Belgium and the Netherlands in the strongly growing healthcare advertising market."

Bruno de Cartier, Director of Mediahuis NV: "Gezondheid.be, Passionsanté.be and Minimi.be are strong brands valued by consumers for their high‑quality, accessible and up‑to‑date information on health in the broad sense of the word. Mediahuis is pleased that Roularta is now giving these three health websites a permanent place in an international framework, thus offering them attractive and sustainable prospects for the future.”

Roularta Media Group is a Belgian listed multimedia group and a market leader in Belgium in magazine brands (general, business and sports news, women's, lifestyle and professional brands) in Dutch and French, local media in Flanders (Sunday newspapers, free local papers and lifestyle magazines, location‑based advertising online and via TV screens, networking events, etc.), provincial newspapers (Krant van West‑Vlaanderen) and financial and business newspapers (De Tijd, L'Echo). In the Netherlands, RMG has the second largest portfolio of magazine brands (opinion, investment, 50+, sports, lifestyle and special interest). In Germany, RMG is the market leader in media for the over‑50s audience. With Roularta Printing Services, RMG also has the largest offset printing works in Belgium. Here, quality newspapers, magazines and catalogs are printed for the Belgian and foreign markets.