Possibilities For IPC Magazines Sale

Reed Elsevier announced yesterday that it is to put its IPC Magazines division up for sale (subscribers see Reed Confirms IPC Sell-Off

Despite industry sources speculating that a deal of this magnitude might be a stretch for Emap, chief executive Robin Miller told Newsline that Emap would be considering further the opportunity saying that there were “some good parts, some not so good” and added non-committally that they “weren’t too disinterested.” If Emap were to acquire the business it would give them a 35 per cent overall majority on the consumer press market which may contravene Monopolies and Mergers’ policies.

Although a spokeswoman for Condé Nast told Newsline that the company had no plans to put in a bid at the moment, analysts believe that they are one of the few companies who could afford the whole 70-title range. For Condé Nast the deal would seize a firmer hold on the UK consumer title market.

International group Hearst, owners of National Magazines Company, are also taking an interest and a deal would allow National Magazines Company to bolster its consumer title portfolio which already includes Company, Cosmopolitan and Esquire.

A further possibility arising from Reed’s divestment of IPC Magazines is that a company which currently has publications covering a different area of the consumer titles market may see the acquisition as a means of expanding their empire. VNU, publishers of mainly computing and Internet magazines, is in such a position and a media analyst told Newsline that it has the capacity to make the deal. Similarly, newspaper company United News & Media may be interested in the sale as a means of entering the magazine market. There is also liable to be interest from buy-out groups such as Cinven, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Barings.

^*All figures referred to in this document are for consumer titles only. Any titles in other markets which the companies publish (business for example) are not taken into account.