Media In The City: Emap Still On Track To Sell Its Divisions

Last week saw Emap take centre stage, with the review of its assets begun in July continuing to hit the headlines.

At the start of the week it was reported that the private equity firm Cinven had pulled out of the race for the company’s consumer magazine division, apparently unhappy with the £700m price tag (Full Story).

Later in the week, Emap said that bidders interested in its business-to-business division should consider buying the Emap plc title (Full Story).. This is seen as a way of ensuring that the value of the other two divisions – consumer magazines and radio – can be passed back to existing shareholders in the most tax-efficient way possible.

It is believed that bidders for its business-to-business division include Guardian Media Group and private equity firms Providence and Apax.

Also in the news, News Corp reported a rise in operating income to $1.05bn (£499m) for the three months to the end of September (Full Story).

BT reported pre-tax profits of £1.5 billion for the second quarter, up 2%, with revenues of £5 billion, up 3% (Full Story).

Publisher of the FT, Pearson, signed an agreement to sell its French newspaper Les Echos to LVMH (Full Story).

Staff at the paper had opposed the €240m (£167m) cash deal, arguing that there were inadequate guarantees of editorial independence.

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