GERMANY - Informa pulls out of Springer race

The news comes just a week after Swedish-buyout house EQT was reported to be interested in acquiring the business. the investor was said to be lining up a £1bn financing package as part of a takeover bid that could value the company at around EUR 2.6bn.

In March this year, unquote" reported that the private equity owners were attempting to sell a minority 49% stake in the academic publisher. However, offers fell well short of the EUR 500m they were hoping to raise, with several private equity bidders, including EQT, TPG, Apax and a consortium comprising Providence and Carlyle, thought to have offered no more than EUR 380m.

In September TPG announced it was abandoning its pursuit of the company, with other bidders soon following suit. The investors subsequently announced they would be willing to consider majority control offers.

The publisher is said to carry EUR 1.9bn in debt after paying out around EUR 1bn in dividends to the private equity owners, and is thought to be in danger of breaching its banking covenants. Some of the firm's debt reaches maturity at the beginning of 2010, meaning it is urgently in need of refinancing.

Springer was acquired by Candover and Cinven for more than EUR 1bn in 2003. The publisher reports annual turnover of EUR 880m and employs 5,000 staff. The business was founded in 1842 and is based in Berlin.

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