Blackstone Eyes £1.2bn Bid For Cannes Lions Owner

The private equity giant Blackstone (NYSE: BX - news) is among a pack of investment firms weighing £1.2bn takeover bids for the media conglomerate which owns the Cannes Lions advertising festival.

Sky News understands that Blackstone, Advent International and TPG (Taiwan OTC: 6521.TWO - news) have expressed an interest in buying Top Right Group from their rival buyout firm Apax Partners and the publisher of The Guardian newspaper.

Top Right, which is also examining plans for a stock market flotation, is one of the most prominent privately owned media companies in the UK.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) owns a wide range of assets, including the fashion industry bible Draper's and its sister magazine, Retail Week, and is expected to be valued at well over £1bn.

City sources said on Friday that Apax, which acquired control of Top Right in 2008, had hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) to work on a deal to offload the company.

Previously called Emap, just under 33% of Top Right is owned by Guardian Media Group (GMG), meaning that a deal valuing Top Right at £1.2bn including debt would mean a payout worth several hundred million pounds for the national newspaper publisher.

Talks with prospective buyers are at an early stage, insiders said.

Apax and GMG previously jointly owned Auto Trader (Other OTC: ATDRY - news) , the title for secondhand car buyers, which was floated on the stock market earlier this year.

Top Right generates revenues from three separate segments: events, which include the Cannes Lions and a new awards summit focused on healthcare industry communications; information services, which includes businesses such as the trends data provider WGSN; and Emap, which houses titles including Draper's and Health Service Journal.

Reporting results earlier this year for 2014, Duncan Painter, Top Right's chief executive, described a three-year turnaround plan as being "complete".

"Our businesses have effective growth strategies in place and clear operating priorities," he said.

"I am delighted to announce that we have again grown our client base and further improved customer satisfaction and retention to industry-leading levels."

Turnover during the year increased by 15%, with pre-tax profit up by 24% to more than £85m.

News (Other OTC: NWSAL - news) of the plan to hold a beauty parade of investment banks comes several months after GMG's board appointed David Pemsel as its new chief executive.

Mr Pemsel was handed the role at a time of major change for the group, which this year saw Alan Rusbridger relinquish the editorship of its flagship newspaper after 20 years.

The Guardian's new editor, Katharine Viner, is a long-standing journalist at the title, ensuring a degree of continuity that was mirrored in the company's leadership with Mr Pemsel's appointment.

Top Right is headquartered in London and employs more than 1,800 people.

The company has reduced its debts substantially in the last two years, partly as a consequence of the sale of assets such as CAP, an automotive information business.

None of the prospective bidders for Top Right would comment on Friday.