Springer Science+Business Media opts for IPO instead of sale

The owners of German academic publisher Springer Science+Business Media have decided to list the company after failing to sell the group to private equity firm BC Partners Reuters today reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Springer Science+Business Media's owners, Swedish private equity firm EQT and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), who were seeking €3.1 billion from the sale, felt that the €3.1 billion ($4.1 billion) bid from the sole remaining bidder BC Partners was too low (See: BC Partners sole bidder for Germany's Springer Science+Business Media)

EQT and GIC were accepting takeover offers despite saying on 5 June that they plan to raise about €760 million in an IPO for Springer Science+Business Media, which would start trading in Frankfurt before the European summer break.

Stockholm-based EQT had teamed up with GIC in 2009 to buy Springer Science+Business Media to buy 82 per cent and 18 per cent of the company respectively from British private equity firms Candover and Cinven.

Berlin-based Springer Science+Business Media publishes 2,200 English-language journals and more than 8,000 new book titles every year across five main fields that include science, business, and transport.

In 1842, Julius Springer founded what is now Springer Science+Business Media. The first of Julius Springer's ventures was a bookstore in Berlin, followed by the publishing house.

A E Kluwer, the other founder of the present day company, also founded his publishing house in the 19th Century in the Netherlands.

In 1999, Bertelsmann acquired a majority share in Springer-Verlag.

In 2003, British financial investors Cinven and Candover acquired Kluwer Academic Publishers and BertelsmannSpringer, and merged them in 2004.

Its main competitors are Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier and Dutch Wolters Kluwer, and has an annual turnover of turnover of €976.3 million.