A quick ‘heads up’ from Richard:Informa gets bid from private equity consortium led by Providence Equity. Depending on whose maths you trust, the bid is more or less $6 billion: less according to The Times, but almost $7 billion according to the Financial Times (the FT correctly notes that the value of Informa’s debt also needs to be added on).
Either way, it would rank as the world’s largest private equity bid since leveraged finance markets seized up late last summer. That would be costly (using high-yield debt costing 11.75 per cent). We’re not convinced it’s going to happen (perhaps it’s a good day for Informa shareholders to sell).
