THE WORLD’s second-largest academic publisher, Springer Science + Business Media, has appointed investment banks to advise on a flotation that could value the company at more than €2 billion (£1.4 billion).

Candover and Cinven, the private-equity houses that own the Frankfurt firm, have hired ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and UBS to study “strategic options” for the group. These are likely to include bulking it up by bolt-on acquisitions ahead of a float.

Derk Haank, Springer’s chief executive and a former director at Reed Elsevier, its larger rival, is keen to see the company float by 2007 at the latest.

A source close to Springer said the exact timing of an initial public offering (IPO), which is likely to take place in London, had yet to be agreed but that it could come as early as the middle of next year.

The source declined to elaborate on the roles to be played by each investment bank, but said: “There is no doubt about Haank’s intentions.”

An IPO will hand significant paper windfalls to Haank and fellow Springer board directors, including Martin Mos, the chief operating officer who also joined from Reed Elsevier, and Ulrich Vest, the finance chief.

Candover and Cinven acquired Bertelsmann Springer from its parent, the German media powerhouse Bertelsmann, for €1.05 billion in May 2003. The private-equity firms then merged it with Kluwer Academic Publishers, which they acquired for €600m a year earlier.

The combined group has 70 publishing companies and almost 1,500 journals specialising in academic fields such as science, medicine, engineering and transport.

Springer employs more than 5,000 people in 18 countries and last year had consolidated sales of €833m. Its British operations are based in Surrey and oversee the publication of 20 journals.

Among the company’s most significant acquisitions was the purchase in 1974 of Vieweg, the publishing house that brought Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity to public attention in 1917.

Other notable scientists who have had work published under the Springer banner include Marie Curie, who discovered radium and inspired a leading cancer-research charity.