Bertelsmann sells BertelsmannSpringer to Cinven and Candover for1.05 bn euros]]

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Of possible interest.

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(AFX-Focus) 2003-05-13 08:18 GMT:

GUETERSLOH, Germany (AFX) - Bertelsmann AG said it agreed to sell its
scientific publishing unit, BertelsmannSpringer, to UK private equity
firms Cinven and Candover for 1.05 bln eur.

The transaction is subject to antitrust approval, Bertelsmann said.

It remains to be decided whether Cinven and Candover will take over
BertelsmannSpringer's activities in France, which account for 4.5 pct of
total revenue, Bertelsmann said.

BertelsmannSpringer is headquartered in Berlin and Heidelberg, with sales
in 2002 of 731 mln eur and EBITDA of 102.4 mln eur, Candover and Cinven
said in a separate statement.

With 70 publishing houses, it publishes more than 700 journals and trade
magazines and over 4,000 new book titles each year. It employs over 5,000
people in 16 countries, they said.

Cinven and Candover will hold equal equity stakes in BertelsmannSpringer,
they said.

Candover and Cinven also said they want to merge BertelsmannSpringer with
Kluwer Academic Publishers (KAP) to create an STM publisher with total
combined revenues of about 880 mln eur and EBITDA of 155 mln eur.

Netherlands-based KAP was acquired by Candover and Cinven in January.

The newly merged KAP and BertelsmannSpringer will be re-named Springer,
and will be the world's second largest academic publisher behind Elsevier
Science, Candover and Cinven said.

Candover and Cinven were advised by Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg.

daniel.smith@afxnews.com

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