Publisher in £200m battle to buy events firm

THE Footsie-listed publisher formerly known as Reed Elsevier is mulling a £200 million takeover of events firm Mack Brooks.

City sources said Mack Brooks, which stages exhibitions and conferences for the transport, chemicals and packaging industries, has been working with PricewaterhouseCoopers advisers on a potential sale in recent weeks.

Bankers say publishing giant, the RELX group, has been toughing it out with private equity firm Inflexion in the final stages of a sale process.

Another potential buyer is Belgian private equity firm Core Equity. Any sale is likely to net Stephen Brooks a multimillion pound cash payout. According to Companies House, he is the ultimate controlling party of the events business, which was set up in 1965.

The current frenzy of dealmaking in publishing saw London-listed publishing and events group Informa combine with UBM in a £9 billion merger earlier this year. And this month Inflexion sold Closerstill Media, organiser of the London Vet Show, to private equity firm Providence Equity Partners for £340 million.

Mack Brooks didn’t return calls for comment, while RELX and Inflexion both declined to comment.