XL Media to return £11m to shareholders before winding down

XL Media is preparing to return £11m to its shareholders, as the company advances with its winding down process.

Funds will be returned to shareholders in the form of a tender offer for outstanding shares before the company ceases trading on 13 May 2025.

XL Media has informed shareholders that the tender offer will be conducted at a fixed price of 11p per ordinary share, representing a premium of approximately 16% to the middle market closing price on 10 April.  

The tender offer will apply to 100 million ordinary shares, equivalent to 70.9% of the business, with “qualifying shareholders” eligible to cash in.

The offer will close at 1pm on 28 April, and any tenders that come in after that deadline will not be accepted unless the offer is extended.

The tender offer remains subject to a shareholder vote at XLMedia’s general meeting on 28 April.

The £11m return to shareholders comes after the affiliate returned £14m in capital in February.

The company does not expect to make any more returns to shareholders after the upcoming tranche, as it prepares to delist from the alternative investment market (AIM) and close down.

An XL Media statement read: “The board considers that the tender offer is the most suitable way of returning capital to shareholders in a quick and efficient manner, taking into account the relative costs, complexity and timeframes of other possible methods, as well as the likely tax treatment for and equality of treatment of shareholders.”

XL Media agreed a $30m (£23.2m) deal with Sportradar back in November 2024 to sell its North American assets.

This followed the sale of the affiliate’s Europe- and Canada-facing brands to Gambling.com Group in a deal worth up to $42.5m, which was announced in April last year.

The company added that a final payment of $11.2 million was paid by Gambling.com Group on 1 April 2025, which included a “variable component of $3.7m based on the strong revenue performance of the assets which formed the Europe Disposal in the remainder of 2024 following their sale”.

A final performance related payment of $1m is also due from Sportradar on or around 2 May 2025, meaning the total transaction value will be $21m, below the potential $30m the pair had agreed.

The company added that it still needs to settle any outstanding tax bills in each jurisdiction it operates in before closing.

Back in December, the company confirmed company CEO David King was set to step down in June 2025 as part of a raft of redundancies following the asset sales.

Headcount had been reduced to 17 by the start of the year, with 10 more people expected to depart by the end of Q2 2025.