Media and business information company, United Business Media, has ruled itself out as a potential bidder for Emap’s £1.5 billion B2B division.
The company, which owns Music Week, Building, Property Week, Dalton’s Weekly, Travel Trade Gazette and Pulse, has been focusing on developing its news distribution and B2B division, setting aside up to £500 million to complete a number of acquisitions by March 2008.
In a strategy update issued today, UBM said it had already spent £250 million acquiring 35 businesses since February 2006. The company has returned over £400 million of capital, including £43 million since July 2007.
It said that although it has ruled out a bid it could still be interested, like Guardian Media Group, in various Emap B2B titles should they be sold off.
David Levin, chief executive of UBM, said: “The business-to-business and news distribution markets continue to offer attractive acquisition and organic growth opportunities for the development of UBM.
“We intend to take full advantage of these opportunities while maintaining our discipline in the use of capital.”
He added: “We continue to direct UBM towards higher quality business models while accelerating underlying revenue growth through organic product development and active portfolio management.
“We will invest in markets that offer sustainable growth opportunities and more predictable revenues and earnings and in acquisitions and organic business developments which take advantage of the worldwide reach of UBM’s businesses.”
Last week Emap said that those who have bid for its business-to-business section should consider buying the Emap plc title (see Emap Asks Bidders To Consider Buying Emap Plc Title).
This was following on from the news that the private equity firm, Cinven, pulled out of the race for Emap’s consumer magazine division, apparently unhappy with the £700 million price tag (see Cinven Pulls Out Of Emap Consumer Magazine Bidding).
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