Candover and Cinven, two London-based equity firms, have agreed to acquire Kluwer Academic Publishers for 600 million euros ($582 million). KAP publishes scientific and technical books and journals for the academic and professional markets. It has annual revenue of approximately 150 million euros ($145.5 million), putting the value of the deal at a healthy four-times revenues.
KAP is based in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, and has offices in New York, Boston, London, Lancaster (U.K.) and Moscow, and has about 600 employees. The company will continue to be led by its CEO, Peter Hendriks, who is also an investor in the newly independent publishing company. KAP publishes about 675 journals and 1,200 books annually and also operates Kluwer Online (www.kluweronline.com). It has a backlist of 13,000 books. Its operations in the U.S. include Kluwer Academic.
Brian Linden, a director at Cinven, said the new owners will work with existing KAP management to grow the company, and he acknowledged that Cinven and Candover are considering making a bid for Springer Verlag, which has been put up for sale by its parent company, Bertelsmann.
Wolters Kluwer will use the proceeds from the sale, which is expected to close early next year, to invest in what it considers its core businesses: legal, tax and business, health and education.
