Rumours Nine Entertainment is about to sell its publishing business ACP Magazines have flared again with a report that the debt-laden company could make an announcement "within days", but industry sources say they believe there is no deal.
ACP spokeswoman Deborah Thomas said the company had "no response" to a report yesterday saying the company had been in talks with German-based Bauer Media Group.
However, other sources in publishing and private equity said any such announcement would be a surprise, although the company had held talks with Bauer and other possible suitors.
Nine Entertainment, which is owned by CVC Private Equity, has been fielding offers for ACP for more than a year, with companies known to have looked at the business including Seven West Media, which owns No 2 publisher Pacific Magazines.
Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood is understood to have recently held talks with Nine Entertainment boss David Gyngell, but a source said the discussion had come to nothing.
A sale would be timely for the cash-hungry Nine Entertainment, which risks breaching its debt covenants in September as it struggles to refinance its $2.8 billion of debt before loan agreements expire in February.
However, business sources said an asset sale would be unusual as lenders in these circumstances usually found it difficult to approve such a split-off.
Bauer is privately owned by the Bauer family with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany.
Its magazines include Closer, GRAZIA, heat, FHM and ZOO in Britain and First for Women, Soaps In Depth and Woman's World in the US.
Another link between Nine Entertainment and Bauer is ACP chief executive Matthew Stanton. Mr Stanton was financial director of British publisher Emap when it sold its consumer magazines and radio divisions to Bauer in 2008.
ACP is Australia's biggest magazine publisher, with a 50.7 per cent share of all magazines sold in the six months to December 31 and titles including The Australian Women's Weekly, Woman's Day, TV WEEK and the local editions of GRAZIA, Cosmopolitan and Top Gear.
However, the magazines business has been the worst-performing of Nine's businesses, which also include the Nine east coast TV networks, half of digital business ninemsn and Ticketek.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/doubts-over-nine-mag-deal/story-e6frg996-1226442561584
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