Swedish private equity firm
EQT V and GIC Special Investments (GICSI), the private equity arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, have announced that they have agreed to acquire 100 percent of Springer Science+Business Media (Springer). EQT intends to buy 82 percent and GICSI will buy 18 percent of Springer, which claims to be the world’s second-largest scientific, technical and medical (STM) publisher, and a leader in the digitisation of scientific information.
Springer is owned by private equity (PE) firms Candover and Cinven, which hired Goldman Sachs and UBS, to initially raise Euro 500 million by selling a stake in the company as a way to cut the company's heavy debt load.
Earlier this month, UK-based media firm Informa walked away from the deal, leaving the way clear for EQT to negotiate a deal for the business. The deal is expected to give EQT total control of the company and allow Candover and Cinven to exit the business they established in 2003 through the merger of BertelsmannSpringer with Kluwer Academic Publishing.
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