MoneySupermarket acquires MoneySavingExpert for £87m

Owner and consumer finance journalist Martin Lewis owns 100% of the business and is expected to receive £35m in cash and 22.1m in shares of MoneySupermarket with £27m more conditional on meeting non-financial performance targets over the next three years.

Lewis said he intended to gift £10m to charity including £1m which will go to Citizens Advice.

He will retain his position as editor-in-chief of MoneySavingExpert and Moneysupermarket said it would “preserve the editorial independence” of the website, “free of commercial considerations”.

MoneySavingExpert reported revenues of £15.8m in the 12 months to October 31 2011, up from £11.4m the previous year and pretax earnings of £12.6m.

Lewis said: “This is great news for MoneySavingExpert and its users ensuring, with or without me, the site will be around for many years to come, maintaining our ethos of “cutting your costs and fighting your corner”.

“MoneySavingExpert has become part of people’s daily lives, far bigger than the man who founded it and now is the right time for it to stand on its own two feet."

Final completion is subject to clearance by the Office of Fair Trading, shareholder approval and certain other considerations.

Peter Plumb, chief executive officer of MoneySupermarket, said: “We've worked closely together for years with the common goal of helping customers save money. By joining forces we can get more people to save more money.

“We'll help MoneySavingExpert reach a wider audience and it will broaden the range of advice and tools we offer, encouraging even more people to take action, tap into the benefits of the internet to find a better deal and make the most of their money.

“Once we complete the purchase I look forward to welcoming the MoneySavingExpert team to the MoneySupermarket team, led by their founder Martin Lewis who will be editor-in-chief of MoneySavingExpert.”