Apax Partners writes down investment in Emap

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Buyout house Apax has reportedly written down to zero its investment in Emap, a business-to-business publisher with titles including Retail Week and Broadcast.

Apax and the Guardian Media Group (GMG) paid more than £1bn for the company less than two years ago.

It is reported that the business has seen a downturn in advertising. Despite this, however, Emap is said to be performing relatively well due to some resilience offered by its subscription revenues, with Apax stating that the mark-to-market writedown does not reflect the intrinsic value of the company.

Emap chief executive David Gilbertson has attempted to bring costs down for the business with measures including job cuts and cutting the size of all titles to A4.

According to reports, Apax has said that it could mark the business back up if markets improve.

In separate news, co-chief executive of Emap Data and Insight, Neil Bradford, has just quit after only a year with the group. Gilbertson has been cited as saying that Bradford left to pursue other interests in the private equity industry. Gilbertson will take over Bradford's role and is currently reviewing whether to appoint a replacement.

The Data and Insight business is one of four divisions at Emap and provides research and analysis to clients. Bradford was also appointed to head Emap's online fashion site, WSGN.com, last year. The site proved one of the best performers in the company's b2b division, generating £35m in 2008.