The Independent and many others report the confirmed approach to Informa by a private equity club. This new apporach follows the aborted talks with UBM. Interesting to compare the heat and interest in Informa and the rather more sedate progress of the planned sale of RBI.
Notwithstanding earlier reports that Reed had put staple finance in place for £750m, The Times was saying yesterday that Reed itself was putting up some of the money, presumably having failed to find bank backing for the full amount.
This shows us that the price expecetation is going to be hard to meet for RBI. Its dependence in advertising, and recruitment which is very fickle in a downturn, means there will be lots of nervous re forecasting going on in Sutton. Howver, The Times quotes a source as saying that RBI numbers are on track,
"Trading at RBI is believed to remain in line with expectations, with no sign of an advertising downturn hitting the titlles". I believe everything I read in the papers obviously, but this does seem surprising. The implication is that forward bookings are ahead of the same period last year, yields are increasing, there has been no twitch in recruitment in any sector, sales managers are reporting confidence in their customers marketing budgets Does that sound like the picture of the economy or your business that you have been getting. RBI must be better managed than I realised.
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