Truvo Divests Romanian Operation

Truvo revealed in its first-quarter earnings report that in March it agreed to divest its Romanian operation to the German company People Holding GmbH for 1 euro, essentially giving the operation away free of debt in order to get it off its books. The deal closed this month.

In 2009, the Romanian operation (Pagini Aurii) generated revenues of 1.2 million euros, down 47.8 percent over the prior year. Print revenues were down 54.5 percent to 1 million euros, while online doubled to 200,000 euros.

Given Pagini Aurii’s small size and recent performance, Truvo wasn’t likely to get anything material for it. Truvo retains much larger operations in Belgium, Ireland and Portugal.

People Holding GmbH is associated with the German directory publisher Heise Medien Gruppe.