Gus plc demerger - October 2006

Robert Hickling and Michael Williams advised GUS plc on the Jersey aspects of its well-publicised demerger. The deal saw the GUS general merchandise retailing business, which includes Argos and Homebase, demerged from the Experian information and customer relationship management business. Under the demerger, each shareholder of GUS plc received one share in each of Home Retail Group plc (the new English holding company of the retailing business) and Experian Group Limited (the new Jersey holding company of the Experian business) for each share previously held in GUS plc.

The transaction involved Experian Group Limited reducing its share capital by an amount in excess of US$16 billion, part of which was used to distribute the shares in Home Retail Group plc to the shareholders of GUS plc. The reduction of capital was presented to the Jersey court by Advocate Beverley Lacey, working closely with Robert and Michael.

Immediately following the demerger, Home Retail Group plc and Experian Group Limited were listed on the London Stock Exchange.

As part of the deal, Experian Group Limited successfully completed a global offering under which it raised £800 million.

Experian Group Limited is one of the first Jersey public companies to obtain a full listing on the London Stock Exchange. It has over 44,000 shareholders and a market capitalisation in excess of £5.7 billion. We understand that Experian is a FTSE-100 company.