DISNEY TO SELL CHILTON; REED ELSEVIER TO GET TRADE PUBLICATIONS.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. announced Monday that it had agreed to sell its Chilton trade publications to Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier PLC for $447 million, five months after putting the assets on the block.

The deal, which includes 39 magazines, a research service and a trade-show services firm, is expected to close by the end of July. The price for Chilton - which generated a pretax profit of $28 million on sales of $203 million last year - was at the high end of Wall Street's expectations.

``Disney is getting a very full price for these assets,'' said Porter Bibb, managing director of investment bank Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. ``It's more than most other sellers would have gotten because they've been very judicious and unhurried about making a deal. They did a nice job of packaging the assets.''

Disney put Chilton, of Radnor, Pa., up for sale in late January as part of its decision to sell most of the publishing assets it gained last year as part of its $19 billion buyout of Capital Cities/ABC. The Chilton transaction is the second deal for Disney since then, following its $1.65 billion sale of four newspapers to Knight-Ridder.

Bibb said Reed Elsevier was not a surprise buyer. The company, a joint venture of London-based Reed International and Amsterdam-based Elsevier, had been identified as a likely bidder along with Dutch media conglomerate VNU.

The Chilton publications include Automotive Marketing, Energy User News, Food Engineering, Industrial Paint & Powder and Video Business. Most copies are distributed free of charge with nearly all revenues from advertising.

``Trade publications are valuable because you can control expenses according to your ability to sell advertising,'' Bibb said.

Still to be sold are magazines covering agriculture, medical news, stamp collecting and financial services with Institutional Investor expected to fetch the highest price of the remaining publications.

Disney decided in February that it would keep Los Angeles magazine and Fairchild Publications, parent of Women's Wear Daily and W.

Reed operates Cahners Publishing, which includes Daily Variety and about 90 specialized trade journals. It said the Chilton purchase will add to earnings immediately and provide ``significant'' tax benefits.

``Chilton brings a strong management team and excellent content, which will enhance the critical mass in our ongoing electronic community initiatives in the manufacturing and entertainment sectors,'' Nigel Stapleton, co-chairman of Reed Elsevier, said in a statement.