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ICSTI: Bertlesmann's Science material on offer....

  • To: Multiple recipients of list <epc-l@iucr.org>
  • Subject: ICSTI: Bertlesmann's Science material on offer....
  • From: Pete Strickland <ps@iucr.org>
  • Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 11:38:15 GMT


----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Bertlesmann's Science material on offer....
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 10:50:30 -0000
From: Barry Mahon <mahons1@EIRCOM.NET>
To: ICSTI-L@DTIC.MIL

This report appeared in various sources just before Christmas.

Equity groups eye BertelsmannSpringer

FRANKFURT - Two private equity groups, Cinven and Candover, are planning a
joint bid for BertelsmannSpringer, the specialist scientific publisher owned
 by Bertelsmann, in a deal valuing the German firm at more than  1 billion
 Euro, according to media reports.

Bertelsmann had said earlier this year it intended to sell the unit in an
 effort to reduce debt.

Anglo-Dutch academic publisher Reed Elsevier has also already been mooted as
a potential buyer.

An official close to the equity groups said the two British buy-out firms
 hoped to integrate BertelsmannSpringer into Kluwer Academic Publishers,
 which they were currently in the process of acquiring from Wolters Kluwer of
 the Netherlands for E600-million.

Cinven and Candover were "strategic buyers with a huge amount of capital.
They did the Kluwer deal with a view to buying this asset," the official was
 quoted as saying.

The newspapers said Merrill Lynch, which was conducting the auction, was
scheduled to recommend a shortlist of bidders to Bertelsmann once initial
 offers had been received.

BertelsmannSpringer, which controls nearly 4% of the global market for
 science, technology and medicine book-publishing and trade magazines, is
 expected to report underlying earnings of 75-80 million euros on sales of
 about E780-million this year.

The unit comprises around 70 publishing companies in 18 countries, but
Bertelsmann was seeking to sell it as a single entity, frustrating trade
 buyers interested only in certain parts of the business, the newspapers
 added.

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 

Best wishes

Peter Strickland
Managing Editor
IUCr Journals

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