Just weeks after it announced the sale of the Financial Times to the Nikkei Group, British publisher Pearson said it was selling its 50 per cent stake in The Economist , which it has held for the past 58 years, for £469 million.

Exor, the investment arm of Italy’s Agnelli family, whose investments include Fiat Chrysler and several Italian media publications, will raise its stake to 43.4 per cent, from 4.7 per cent, for £287 million, making it the largest shareholder of The Economist . The remainder of the Pearson stake will be sold to The Economist Group directly for £182 million. The Economist will sell its iconic building in Mayfair, which has been its home since the 1960s, to help pay for the transaction.

The group includes the magazine itself, as well as The Economist Intelligence Unit, CQ Roll Call and TVC.

In a move designed to safeguard The Economist ’s editorial independence, the group’s articles will be amended to ensure that no individual shareholder can have a voting share of more than 20 per cent, and that no shareholder can own more than 50 per cent, the company said.

This will “enable us to shore up an even greater asset, our independence. New offices, with more space for our digital ambitions and the needs of a 21st century media company, will be found for a new chapter in our history,” said Rupert Pennant-Rea, chair of The Economist Group.

In a letter, four former Economist editors and current Editor Zanny Minton Beddoes expressed their support for the deal, and the safeguards brought in.

“Exor will be the group’s largest shareholder, but it will not have control. As has been the case since 1928, that control will remain so widely dispersed that, in effect, no individual or shareholder has unilateral influence. The one crucial exception is this: the Editor decides what is in The Economist, ” said the statement by the editors.

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