MILAN (Reuters) - Britain's Pearson (L:PSON) should announce the sale of its 50 percent stake in The Economist to Italy's Exor and the Rothschild family for 400 million pounds ($624 million) as early as this week, two sources close to the matter said on Tuesday.
Exor, the holding of the Agnelli family which is a controlling shareholder in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (MI:FCHA) (N:FCAU), is expected to build a stake of around 40 percent in The Economist Group after completion of the deal from 4.72 percent now, one of the sources said.
The source said details of the deal were still being finalised, and it could take some time before Exor reaches the 40 percent level.
The source added that Exor and the Rothschild family, which currently controls around 21 percent of The Economist, were negotiating a governance agreement that would give them equal voting powers as leading shareholders of the group.
Pearson, which last month announced the sale of the Financial Times newspaper to Japanese media group Nikkei, declined to comment.