Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and BC Partners have reached an agreement to merge Springer Science+Business Media (owned by funds advised by BCP), with the majority of Holtzbrinck-owned Macmillan Science and Education, creating a publishing group with 1.5 billion euros in sales, and 13,000 employees.
When the deal is complete, the new group will be under joint control of Holtzbrinck and funds advised by BCP, with Holtzbrinck retaining a 53% share. Macmillan's trade and U.S. college publishing divisions are not included in the agreement.
The management board of the new company will include Derk Haank as CEO; Annette Thomas as chief scientific officer; Martin Mos as COO; and Ulrich Vest as CFO.
A supervisory board will be composed of Stefan von Holtzbrinck, chairman of Holtzbrinck; Ewald Walgenbach, vice chairman, BCP; Holtzbrinck's Michael Brockhaus and Jens Schwanewedel; and BCP's Hans Haderer and Christian Mogge.
In its statement about the merger, the groups said that the transaction is "subject to approval by various competition authorities," and expects those reviews to take place during the first half of 2015.
