First Berlin Equity Research has published a research update on ad pepper media International N.V. (ISIN: NL0000238145). Analyst Dr. Karsten von Blumenthal reiterated his BUY rating and maintained his EUR 3.50 price target.

Abstract
Last week, ad pepper media (APM) and seven shareholders of solute Holding GmbH & Co. KG (solute) signed a purchase agreement for 25.64% of solute shares (purchase price: ca. €4m). APM will finance the purchase by issuing almost 1.7m new shares against contribution in kind. The first step of the transaction has thus been completed. APM now plans to acquire further solute shares to gain a majority stake to be able to consolidate the company. solute, a leading price comparison portal business in the German market (billiger.de and shopping.de), has more than 170 employees, generated €33m in revenue and EBITDA of €2.0m in the past financial year. The deal would more than double APM’s revenue and create a leading listed player in performance marketing and digital marketplaces (price comparison). We believe that the advertising technology (adtech) company solute, with its broad digital marketing know-how and strong competitive position in the German price comparison portal market, is a good fit for APM, and expect the deal to be value-accretive. For the time being, we stick to our stand alone APM forecasts and valuation. We confirm our Buy rating and the €3.50 price target.