Informa drops Springer bid
MEDIA group Informa has abandoned a bid for Springer Science & Business Media, saying it was unable to do a deal in the time set by the debt-laden firm’s private equity owners.
Informa was planning to buy Springer after its owners, Candover and Cinven, put it on the market earlier this year. Springer was valued at about €2.6bn (£2.35bn) including debt.
The British group walked away after investors balked at the amount of cash needed and the tight timings imposed by Candover and Cinven.
“Whilst there is clear strategic logic in combining Springer and Informa, the board has concluded after detailed consideration that the current environment is not conducive to making such a significant acquisition in the timescale required by the vendors,” Informa said in a statement.
After rising on Tuesday on hopes that investors would no longer have to back a large rights issue to fund the deal, shares in Informa yesterday fell 10p, or three per cent, to 296.5p.
Informa publishes the Lloyd’s List shipping newspaper, owns a range of academic and professional publications and runs conferences and courses.
The group’s withdrawal paves the way for Swedish private equity firm EQT to press ahead with a bid for Springer backed by a billion pound-plus loan.
It is understood that an agreement of some sort between EQT and Springer could come within ten days, although private equity firm Apax Partners is also said to be interested.
It is the second time Informa and Springer have ended takeover talks after the UK firm rejected a takeover bid by the German firm in 2006.