Springer is sprung

13 May 2003

The media group has sold its scientific publisher after a healthy auction. Its buyers will merge it with Kluwers, its former rival. The receipt ought to sort out Bertelsmann’s debt problem. But it is not enough to put the group back on the acquisition trail.

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Bertelsmann, the German media group, has sold BertelsmannSpringer, its scientific and technical publisher, for E1.05bn in cash to the UK private equity firms Cinven and Candover. BertelsmannSpringer, which consists of 70 companies that release 700 specialist magazines and 4,000 new books a year, had total sales of E731m in 2002, and ebita of E71m. Bertelsmann was obliged to sell BertelsmannSpringer in an effort to reduce its E2.7bn of debt.

Cinven and Candover also collaborated to buy Wolters Kluwer's academic publishing arm in January this year for E600m. Subject to antitrust clearance, they plan to merge the two into a new specialist publishing entity with a 10% share of the global specialist publishing market, putting it in number 2 position in the sector.

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