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Will Emap titles be left on the shelf?

Posted in Media, Arif Durrani, Latest reporters' blogs September 5th, 2007 by Arif Durrani

It didn’t take Mystic Meg to sense how eligible Emap had become for a sale after the exit of CEO Tom Moloney, but my initial comments in May continue to hold-up to current scrutiny.

In what has become typical in a campaign of double-speak and uncertainty, Emap plc is still not officially up-for-sale, but has admitted to examining the “possible sale or demerger” of its constituents parts.

Cutting to the chase, the group as we know is on its last legs. The sale of 50 per cent of its music TV business has been agreed with Channel 4, as has the sale of its three Irish radio stations to Communicorp, in a deal valued at £135 million.

Meanwhile, banks Citi and Lazards are assisting with an ongoing review and official memoranda of information will be available to potential bidders by the end of the week for its separate radio, consumer magazines and business-to-business divisions.

A number of unsolicited offers are already said to be on the table, but while radio and B2B players will be salivating from afar, Emap’s ambition to sell its consumer brands as a job-lot appear a tad optimistic.

Privately, many publishers are saying the same thing – Emap has some great titles, not least Grazia and Zoo, but would we want to buy the division as a block? Absolutely not.

A quick side-wards glance at the sector provides enough of an explanation. Circulations are falling, competition is increasing and an individual magazine’s life expectancy has hit an all time low.

These are uncertain times for the industry and finding a home for more than 70 titles, ranging from automotive and special interest to women’s fashion, youth and men’s lifestyle, could be tricky.

But suddenly the names of prospective buyers are being leaked to the national press, and a once closed review appears to be raising its profile.

The names read like a veritable list of who’s who in Europe, France’s biggest publisher Hachette Filipacchi is there, along with Italy’ largest Mondadori and Germany’s Gruner + Jahr.

Before we get carried away, today G+J ruled itself out of contention and accused Emap of deliberately spreading misinformation.
 
Interesting times indeed, and with proceedings expected to last no longer than six weeks, we won’t have to wait long for the grande finale.
The smart money is on the emergence of ‘non compliant’ bids which pick off and ring-fence individual titles.

We’ll have to wait and see.

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