Incisive Media to divest Insight division to TowerBrook's Infopro

Staff in the London office of Incisive Media were made aware of the upcoming transaction on the morning of Monday 27 March, a source familiar with the situation told unquote". Infopro confirmed the information in a press release the same morning.

Incisive Media, the former parent company of unquote", hired Arma Partners to run a sale process for its Insight division – which comprises its flagship hedge fund, risk management, energy and insurance publications – according to unquote" sister publication Mergermarket. According to the same Mergermarket report, the process attracted bids from private equity houses Inflexion Private Equity, Bowmark Capital and ECI Partners. Besides Infopro, the process also reportedly included a couple of other trade players in the second round of bidding.

TowerBrook, which owned French B2B publishing house Infopro between 2001-2007, signed a definitive agreement to reacquire the asset from Apax Partners and Altamir in early 2016. News filtering into the market at the time suggested an enterprise value of around €700m, with debt financing of some €360m being arranged. 

Turnaround specialist Alchemy Partners secured a majority stake in Incisive via a debt-for-equity swap in early 2015. The deal – which had been in the works for around a year – saw Incisive's debt pile reduced from £110m to £25m, resulting in significantly reduced interest payments.

The publisher then sold private equity publications Asian Venture Capital Journal and unquote" to Mergermarket Group in 2015, before selling legal information provider Legal Week to its former subsidiary ALM in early 2016.

The sale of the Insight division would leave Incisive with its Business branch, which covers events organisation and marketing services, as well as a range of publications such as CRN, Computing and Professional Pensions.

TowerBrook, Incisive, Arma, Infopro and Alchemy had not returned requests for comment at the time of publication.

Company
Founded in 2001, Infopro runs a B2B publication portfolio featuring more than 50 specialised outlets. Headquartered in La Croix de Berny, south of Paris, the group covers areas such as insurance and finance (L'Argus de l'Assurance), the automotive sector (Atelio), local councils (Emploipublic.fr), construction, distribution, industrials and tourism. It generates revenues of €300m and has 2,400 employees.

Incisive's Insight division generates £40m in turnover with EBITDA reportedly standing at around £9m. Its portfolio of brands includes Risk.net, Insurance Post, Chartis and WatersTechnology.

People
Incisive Media – Tim Weller (CEO).
Incisive Insight – Celine Infeld (managing director).
Infopro Digital – Christophe Czajka (founder, executive chair).

Advisers
Vendor – Arma Partners (M&A).

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• Topics
• Media
• France
• UK / Ireland
• Exits
• Build-up
• Towerbrook Capital Partners
• Alchemy Partners LLP
• Inflexion Private Equity
• Bowmark Capital LLP
• ECI Partners