Springer owners prepare for floatation

Springer Science and Business Media, the German scientific, technical and medical (STM) publisher is being prepared for a stock market floatation in 2006 or 2007 by its two equity owner Candover and Cinven.

Colin Buffin, a business manager for Candover Partners told financial newspaper that they are preparing for floatation in 2007, but it could come earlier. A source close to Candover told IWR that the timetable is for 2007, but it could come earlier. Adding that the aim at present is to have Springer "in good shape for an IPO" (initial public offering) in 2007.

Springer is the world's second largest journal publisher after Reed Elsevier. Candover and Cinven bought Springer from German media empire Bertelsmann Group for Euro 1.5bn in 2003. Following the acquisition of Springer, Candover and Cinven merged Springer with Kluwer Academic Publishing, which they had acquired in October 2002, from Wolters Kluwer.

Derk Haank, Springer CEO has introduced changes to Springer which have improved the financial position of the company. Haank was recruited from rivals Reed Elsevier.

The last 12 months have seen regular Springer IPO stories appear in the financial news. In January 2005 the Sunday Times claimed ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and UBS were preparing Springer for IPO.

Springer recently recruited Jan Velterop as its internal advocate for its open access publishing model Springer Open Choice.