Merger proposed between Informa Group and Taylor & Francis.

The boards of Informa Group (London) and Taylor & Francis (London/New York) have entered Into a tentative agreement to merge the two companies into a single entity, T&F Informa. Under terms of the agreement, existing Informa and Taylor & Francis shareholders will hold approximately 51% and 49%, respectively, of the new company.

Taylor & Francis shareholders will receive 1.7 new T&F Informa shares for every share of T&F currently held. Informa shareholders will retain their current holdings. The deal is subject to a number of conditions, including approval of both the courts and of shareholders of both companies.

Informa Group is comprised of over 65 operating units producing information products and conferences for a range of market segments. Units include Baskerville Communications, Drug & Market Development Publications, EuroForm, IBC, Lloyd's, Informa Media Group, Marine & Aviation Publishing, Pharmaceutical Newsletters and the recently acquired MMS Group and PJB Publications. Preliminary results show that Informa had 2003 revenues of 268 [pounds sterling] million, a decrease of 5.3% from the 283 [pounds sterling] million reported in 2002, and profit before taxes of 7.7 million [pounds sterling], down 35.5% from the 12.1 million [pounds sterling] recorded in 2002.

Taylor & Francis consists of 14 operating units aligned into two main groups, T&F Journals and T&F Books. Units include the recently-acquired BIOS Scientific Publishers, Psychology Press, CRC Press, Routledge and medical publisher Martin Dunitz. In the fourth quarter of 2003, T&F completed the purchases of Marcel Dekker (New York), a publisher of 78 Journals and 3000 book titles in science, engineering and medicine, and Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers (Lisse, The Neth.), a producer of journals and books in engineering, ophthalmology, life sciences and social sciences.

T&F had 2003 revenues of 173.7 million [pounds sterling], a 17.9% increase over the 147.4 million [pounds sterling] reported in 2002. Operating profit increased 16% to 30 million [pounds sterling] and total net profit rose 79.2%, going from 8.6 million [pounds sterling] in 2002 to 15.3 million [pounds sterling] in 2003.

Informa said the combined businesses will produce approximately 2500 subscription-based products and 2800 events annually. It will have a book backlist of over 35,000 volumes and databases with about i0 million names. Including 2003 figures for all properties acquired by T&F and Informa last year, T&F Informa would have had 2003 pro forma revenues of 491 million [pounds sterling] and pro forma EBIDTA of 92 million [pounds sterling].