Friday, February 15, 2008

EMAP may not be dead - yet.

It is being reported that the credit crunch has scuppered, at least temporarily the Apax backed merger of Emap Business and Incisive Media. To merge the two businesses would require refinancing debt already on Incisives balance sheet - and the credit crunch means that would be on less favourable terms than the deal currently in place. Also, the new deal would require more equity and less debt than previously thought as the banks play very cautiously in the new "sub prime" world.

In practical terms this means that Incisive and Emap will operate seperately - at least for the forseeable future. Of course the deal to acquire Emap is not closed and Apax still have to place all that debt requirement. I have no doubt they will be confident - but what happens if they can't?

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