LONDON (Reuters) – Informa Plc, the British media group, ended talks to buy Springer Science + Business Media, saying it could not do a deal in the time frame required by the debt-laden firm’s private equity owners.
The withdrawal of the Lloyd’s List publisher, days after it confirmed it was considering a takeover of Springer, clears the way for Swedish private equity firm EQT, which senior bankers have said is lining up a billion-pound-plus loan to fund a deal.Â
“Whilst there is clear strategic logic in combining Springer and Informa … the current environment is not conducive to making such a significant acquisition in the timescale required by the vendors,” Informa said in a statement on Tuesday.
Springer Science + Business Media, valued at around 2.6 billion euros ($3.9 billion) including debt, was put up for sale earlier this year by its owners Candover (CDI.L) and Cinven.
(Reporting by Quentin Webb)
If you do not receive this within five minutes, please try and sign in again. If the problem persists, please
email: subscriptions@peimedia.com.