Centaur Media’s MiniMBA Sale Represents A Changing of the Guard in UK Media

UK B2B media company Centaur Media has sold a crown jewel from within its portfolio of media assets to buzzy digital marketing firm Brave Bison.

Centaur Media signed a purchase agreement with Brave Bison for the sale of the MiniMBA program for an enterprise value of £19 million ($26 million). Sky News first reported this deal was in the works in May.

The sale comes only six months after the company’s executive chair Martin Rowland announced he would conduct a review of Centaur’s business units. He was placed in the executive chair position in December, just weeks before that announcement, by activist investor Harwood Capital, which has a 29% stake in the company.

“I don’t think anybody is surprised that one of the key assets has been sold because that’s what happens with strategic reviews,” Fiona Orford-Williams, an Edison Group analyst, told AMO. “You look to see what bits of your business are worth and whether they are worth more under your own ownership or whether there’s better value to be gained for your shareholders by selling it off.”

The nitty-gritty

Brave Bison is funding the acquisition via a new £10 million ($13 million) revolving credit facility from Barclays, with £6 million ($8 million) being drawn to finance the acquisition as well as a new placement of ordinary shares to new and existing investors raising £13.5 million ($18.5 million), according to a regulatory filing. The share sale was oversubscribed and sold at a discount of 4% to the mid-market closing price of 2.55 pence (4 cents) on May 8, the last trading day before the transaction was announced, per the filing.

Mark Ritson, the founder of the MiniMBA, will also become a top five shareholder in Brave Bison with a £4 million ($5.5 million) personal investment in the company, half of which is a £2 million ($2.75 million) put and call agreement, according to the filing.

Some people might argue that Centaur could have held out for a higher price, but there’s also the practicality of getting a deal done, Orford-Williams said. This case was unique because a lot of the company is tied to Mark Ritson when it comes to ownership, branding, and running the courses, she said.

“It’s by no means a one-man band, but he is the public figurehead of it,” she said. “It had to go to a place that he and his team were comfortable with and were enthused about because otherwise you would just destroy a lot of the value and momentum in the business.”

MiniMBA, which distills a full MBA program for marketing and brand management into 12-week courses, is Centaur’s largest brand and makes up 31% of Centaur’s revenue, according to the 2024 end of year financial results.

Media analyst Colin Morrison, who runs Flashes & Flames, previously speculated that Rowland could potentially net £100 million ($137 million) for the sale of its assets, with MiniMBA accounting for about 60% of that figure.

The sale of the MiniMBA program for £19 million ($26 million) bolsters Centaur’s net cash position, which was £8.9 million ($12 million) in cash at the end of 2024 with very little in debt commitments. The cash position now accounts for a significant portion of the market cap, which sits at £49 million ($67 million), Orford-Williams said.

The end of Centaur Media?

“It is clear the business is being sold off in parts,” one media industry observer who is familiar with the firm’s business model told AMO. “The announcement keeps on mentioning ‘maximizing shareholder value.’ Cash is planned to be returned to shareholders rather than used for anything strategic, for investment or acquisitions.”

In a regulatory filing, Centaur notes that the deal “unlocks significant shareholder value” and “is the first step in the Board’s stated strategy to maximize shareholder value.”

“If the result of the strategic review is that value is going to be better realized under [new] owners and that they can maximize the return and the value for the existing shareholders through disposals, then that’s what we’ll see,” Orford-Williams said.

The focus could turn to B2B publication The Lawyer, she said, which makes up 25% of Centaur’s revenue. In 2018, Centaur explored divesting The Lawyer, then six months later took the publication off the market saying it was a “more attractive option” to retain the holding as it “offers greater opportunity to create value for shareholders.”

Centaur could get a total of £60 million ($83 million), including the £19 million ($26 million) for MiniMBA, for the sum of the parts, said the unnamed media observer.

Brave Bison’s bold vision

At first glance, an EdTech company, like MiniMBA, doesn’t seem a natural fit within the portfolio of digital marketing firm Brave Bison, which has made a string of acquisitions since brothers Oliver and Theo Green took over in 2020. In April, the firm acquired influencer marketing agency The Fifth, which News Corp owned. It also acquired SocialChain, which provides consultancy, content production and influencer marketing services through social-first approaches, and Engage, a specialist sports marketing agency. It also builds proprietary digital marketing and advertising technology tools.

“They are ambitious and they don’t like wasting time,” Orford-Williams said. “I think they see [the MiniMBA] as a good way to embed themselves further and deeper with global brands and to be able to cross-sell something a bit different.”

One of the hidden strengths of the MiniMBA is the network of over 40,000 alumni, which is a valuable group for Brave Bison to become more firmly established with, she said. Last year, MiniMBA saw a 22% increase in corporate sales as it brought on new blue-chip clients including Nestlé, Carlsberg, Michelin and Sephora, according to a regulatory filing.

For the first half of this year, there has been a year-on-year increase of 3% in delegate numbers as well as a 3% increase in revenue, per the filing. Corporate clients remain a key lever for growth going forward, according to the filing, as well as opportunities for expanding into more international markets and introducing AI-based technologies. MiniMBA will operate independently but will lean on Brave Bison’s tech and AI hubs.

“There’s scope for leveraging the branding as well,” Orford-Williams said. “Centaur were doing a lot of this themselves, but running associated courses with slightly different flavors, shorter courses; there’s lots of scope for leveraging it.”

The acquisition of MiniMBA is Brave Bison’s largest yet and is expected to increase its pro forma net revenue by 43% to £36.5 million ($50 million) and adjusted EBITDA by 80% to £8.1 million ($11.15 million), per the regulatory filing. The group’s share price is up 4.73% since market close on June 26.

“Brave Bison shareholders have backed the Green brothers to go for what they want to go for,” Orford-Williams said. “I don’t think anybody’s bought Brave Bison because they want a small marketing services company, albeit a digital biased one. I think they’ve bought it because they’ve seen these ambitious young men with a goal and incentives that they want to back.”

“They’re not the sort of people who are going to be scared off by apparently high cliffs in front of them, they’ll just say, ‘give us a rope and some crampons and we’ll get up there,’” she said. “Their ambitions are greatly beyond the scale of the current business.”