Incisive picks up top mags for £16m

FAST-GROWING financial publisher Incisive Media today paid £16m for the leading stable of private equity magazines and databases.

It has bought Initiative Europe, which includes the magazine Unquote, known as the bible of the private equity industry. Other titles and databases in the deal are Private Equity Europe, European Buy-Out Review, RII (Review of Institutional Investors) and DAT, the UK database analysis tool.

The major vendor is Initiative founder Antonia Millen. The deal will be financed through greater borrowings by Incisive and a placing on behalf of the vendors of just over 8m new Incisive shares.

Incisive's directors, led by Tim Weller, will between them sell just under 4m of their personally held shares to Caledonia Investments, the former investment vehicle of the Cayzer family.

Weller will sell 2.75m shares, which at 136p would raise just over £3.7m. He retains a 5.7% stake in the company which he founded in 1994 and floated in 2000.

Incisive shares have more than doubled in value over the past 12 months despite a contretemps with stockbroker Numis over the takeover of publishing group Centaur last year.

Weller said of today's deal: 'We are acquiring a robust, high-margin, subscriptions-driven business with a leading position in the European private equity market at a time when this market is showing a strong recovery.'