DMGT sells discount voucher firm Wowcher for £29m but retains 30% stake in new joint venture company

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The owner of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday has raised £29million from the sale of its discount voucher business Wowcher to a newly formed company controlled by private equity firm Exponent.

Daily Mail and General Trust, which also owns MailOnline and Thisismoney, said it will retain a 30 per cent stake in the new joint venture firm. 

Wowcher will be joined in the new company by LivingSocial - a website that offers deals to consumers in their local area or city - having acquired its UK and Ireland business. 

Big deal: Wowcher will be joined in the new company by LivingSocial - a website that offers deals to consumers in their local area or city - having acquired its UK and Ireland business

Wowcher is a so-called voucher or coupon website that, like rival Groupon, uses bulk-buying power to bring prices down for goods and services, such as restaurant meals, beauty treatments and cinema tickets.

Shoppers purchase a coupon from the site which is then used to book a service or pay for an item at the participating retailer.

LivingSocial, which is around half the size of Wowcher, also offers users deals in their local city or area.

DMGT said Wowcher, which was launched in 2011, made sales of £30million and achieved its first full year of operating profits in the year to the end of September.

The deal comes a day after DMGT revealed a 19 per cent fall in first half pretax profits to £216million, reflecting a decline in newspaper revenues, although revenues from its flagship MailOnline website jumped 18 per cent to £73million.

Print advertising revenue for DMG Media fell by 12 per cent, but was offset by a rise in MailOnline advertising revenues which went up by £11million.

MailOnline saw the number of visits to the site increase by 24 per cent to 208million per month.

After dropping yesterday, DMGT shares were nearly 4 per cent, or 26.25p higher at 695.25p in lunchtime trading, helped by an upgrade in rating from French broker Societe Generale to hold from sell.