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Dubai joins Blackstone to swoop on British company
A Dubai sovereign wealth fund has teamed up with Blackstone and others in an attempt to buy Informa from under the noses of another private-equity consortium.
- By Ben Fenton and Martin Arnold, Financial Times
- Published: 00:02 July 31, 2008
A Dubai sovereign wealth fund has teamed up with Blackstone and others in an attempt to buy Informa from under the noses of another private-equity consortium.
Providence Equity Partners, Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman have been working to buy the business publisher and events company in a 3.2 billion pounds deal that would be the largest private equity buy-out since the credit crunch began.
In a blow to this consortium, Hellman & Friedman has walked away from participation, the Financial Times has been told.
Due diligence began on Tuesday on a second approach involving the Dubai World Trade Centre, one of the largest events organisers in the Middle East, which is seeking to buy the IIR conference and events division of Informa.
IIR's Middle East arm runs Cityscape Dubai, the world's largest trade real estate event.
In a break-up strategy, Blackstone and other private equity groups, possibly including Permira, would keep the Taylor & Francis academic publishing division while seeking trade buyers for elements such as the Datamonitor business information arm.
Holding entity
DWTC, which is being advised by Morgan Stanley, is owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai, the holding entity for companies owned by the state.
In 2005, Peter Rigby, chief executive of Informa, bought IIR, outbidding both DWTC and Providence.
The exit of Hellman & Friedman is a blow for the Providence-led team, which has struggled to raise bank debt for its approach worth 506p a share.
Blackstone has taken the lead in pulling together the new consortium.
Informa said on Tuesday it had given the second potential bidder access to information needed to carry out due diligence on Informa's accounts and managers.
By teaming up with DWTC, the Blackstone-led grouping aims to make the deal easier to finance, addressing one of the biggest headaches that has plagued the Providence-led consortium. The Dubai fund would buy the IIR conferences business, leaving the private equity groups needing to only raise less debt for a smaller rump of businesses.
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