Nielsen to Raise $870m Plus with Secondary Stock Offering

Nielsen has announced the forthcoming sale of 20m shares of its common stock, priced recently at $43.77 per share.

Valcon Acquisition Holding (Luxembourg) will offer the shares in an underwritten secondary offering, also giving underwriter Citigroup an option to purchase an additional 3,000,000 shares. Shares for sale are attributable to affiliates of The Blackstone Group, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Hellman & Friedman and AlpInvest Partners.

It's almost four years since Nielsen priced its last major sale, an IPO involving 82.1m shares worth around $23 each, raising around $2.1bn which is used to pay down debt and for 'general corporate purposes'.

For the new sale, the company has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus) with the SEC, available through EDGAR on the SEC Web site at: www.sec.gov . The company's home page is at www.nielsen.com .