Deals

Press Release: Ascential plc (the “Group” / LSE: ASCL.L), the global business-to-business information company, today announces that it has agreed the sale of the remaining 11 UK-based Heritage Brands to Metropolis International Limited for a consideration of £23.5m, payable in cash and subject to normal working capital adjustments. The sale has completed and the proceeds will be used to reduce Ascential’s net debt. On 5 January 2017 the Group announced that it had separated 13 Heritage Brands into a new operating entity and that these brands would develop an independent business strategy while new owners were sought.

Informa Exhibitions forms a joint venture company with the organizer of the Inter Health Expo in Guangzhou on 16 May 2017. Inter Health is an international annual B2B trade show launched 14 years ago on nutrition and health food products, held at the Guangzhou Import and Export Fair Complex. Being the first of its kind in introducing ‘big health’ concept onto a trade show platform in China, Inter Health Expo is the largest health food exhibition in China

Press Release: UDG Healthcare has announced the acquisition of Sellxpert, a German and Swiss contract sales outsourcing business, based in Speyer, Germany and Basel, Switzerland, respectively

Fairfax Media appears extremely close to being declared ‘on the market’ as a new bidder, Hellman & Friedman, entered the auction room on Wednesday night with an indicative offer that trumped the TPG offer already on the table. This could easily mark the start of a bidding war between two US private equity groups, likely to move the 176-year-old media group into foreign hands.

Press Release: Stockholm, Sweden: 17 May 2017: Readly, the digital magazine newsstand, today announced it has raised €13m in additional funding to drive the next stage of its development. The series B funding has been provided by funds managed by Zouk Capital and Hermes GPE as well as from existing shareholders. Channel 4’s Commercial Growth Fund and Aggregate Media Fund have also participated in the round. The company will use the funds to further its international expansion and support growth in its existing markets.

MA Exhibitions Limited, the exhibition arm of the Mark Allen Group, has completed its acquisition of the UK’s largest special educational needs show, TES SEN Show, from TES Global Limited. Under the terms of the deal, TES Global has agreed to licence its name to MA Exhibitions for an undisclosed period.

Epiris’ portfolio company AXIO Group scored a 5-times return and a 79 per cent IRR through the £455m sale of TechInsights to Oakley Capital. TechInsights is an intellectual property and technology service provider, offering consulting, patent brokerage and technical reverse engineering.

In Austria, marcoms giant Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired full-service media agency media.at, which provides consulting, research and data analysis relating to comms strategy, ad planning and buying, and ad verification. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

EQT VI Limited (“EQT VI”) has entered into an agreement to sell Bureau van Dijk (or the “Company”) to Moody’s Corporation (“Moody’s”) for an enterprise value of EUR 3.0 billion

As part of an announcement about earnings, Time inc CEO, Rich Battista suggested it will cut costs by selling “non-core assets,” but did not give further details

Event revenues surpass print revenues as Northstar takes on 10 hospitality events.

Gulf Publishing Company has made its first major move since spinning off from its former London-based parent via management buyout last August from Euromoney

Press Release: MCH Group, a globally leading live marketing company with its head office in Basel (Switzerland) has acquired a 100% holding in MC2 (“MC-squared”), a recognized leader in the and event marketing industry in the U.S. This is by far the biggest acquisition in the 100-year history of MCH Group and a key strategic expansion. “The acquisition of MC2 marks a tremendous step forward in the implementation of our corporate strategy, which we have been pursuing since 2005”, explains René Kamm, CEO of MCH Group. “With MC2, we will be greatly boosting our international presence and activities, as well as expanding our range of services in the live marketing field.”

Japanese advertising giant Dentsu has agreed to acquire an 89 per cent stake in Indian digital agency SVG Media. Dentsu said its subsidiary Dentsu Aegis Network would acquire the stake in SVG Media Group with the option to increase its share to make the Indian company a wholly owned subsidiary

Press Release: Investment Week founder Tim Weller and the leadership team of parent Incisive Media have secured a management buyout (MBO), that allows the business to accelerate its growth strategy under long-term private ownership. The MBO was led by Tim Weller, founder and chairman, CFO Jamie Campbell-Harris and CEO Jonathon Whiteley; a team who have worked together in the business for two decades.

Iliffe Media has acquired KM Media Group as the Kent publisher struggled under massive “pension liabilities” that had impacted on investment. The group produces nine paid-for and four free newspapers including the award-winning Kent Messenger series and the Kentish Gazette, established in 1717

21st Century Fox is in talks with private equity giant Blackstone to buy Tribune Media, one of America’s largest television station operators, sources familiar with the matter have said.

According to Campaignlive.co.uk, Mixmag Media has completed a double acquisition of weekly rock magazine Kerrang! and The Face from Bauer Media. The Face will be revived as a digital brand, but Mixmag Media’s Jerry Perkins’ initial focus is reported to be on Kerrang! and, in particular, its digital offering

Gojimo, an app that helps U.K. high school students prepare for exams, has been acquired by Telegraph Media Group, the publisher of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph newspapers. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed, but from what I gather the Gojimo team are staying on and the company will still be run as a separate entity.

Relx has sold leading science magazine the New Scientist as the FTSE 100 group continues its shift away from traditional publishing to data and information services. The magazine, which has a global print and digital circulation of almost 125,000, according to ABC, was bought by Kingston Acquisitions, an investment vehicle led by Sir Bernard Gray, a businessman who previously led a buy out of the Times Educational Supplement from News Corp. The value of the deal was not disclosed.