Emap, the magazines, exhibitions and radio company, signalled it was willing to end its 120-year history after it appointed Lazard and Citigroup to consider a “possible sale or demerger of some or all” of its constituent parts.

The company behind FHM, Kiss FM and Nursing Times insisted that it would continue to search for a new chief executive while exploring its options, but few believed that the media group would be able to appoint a new leader.

Lorna Tilbian, an analyst in Numis Securities, said: “It does look like Emap has thrown in the towel here. Last time Emap was in trouble, they brought back Robin Miller to fix it – why don’t they do something like that again? There’s no reason why the business can’t be fixed.”

Emap said that it had received approaches showing interest in all parts of the group – but no interest in the whole company – and its declaration triggered further interest yesterday.

Providence and Charterhouse are among the private equity firms that have shown interest in the company’s £1.3 billion business-to-business publications, while insiders talked of “multiple approaches” for its £400 million radio unit.

That lifted the shares 12 per cent to 857p, valuing the whole group at £1.85 billion, as the market bet on a break-up of a company that dates back to the Spalding Timesin 1887, and which has gradually built up its modern magazine business since 1947. Known first as East Midland Allied Press, it sold out of newspapers in the mid1990s to concentrate on faster-growing magazine operations.

Venture capital sources said that a full buyout at about £10 a share remained unlikely because it was hard to justify the implied valuation for the company’s consumer magazines, which are struggling amid weak advertising.

In the three months to June, advertising was down 13 per cent, as the company’s men’s magazines struggled. It became clear to the board that Emap as a whole would eventually struggle to meet City profit expectations.

The decision to appoint bankers was taken by Alun Cathcart, the company’s executive chairman, who joined Emap in July after a long career running Avis, the car-hire group. Mr Cathcart in May sacked Tom Moloney, the company’s chief executive, who had been with the publishing group since 1981.

Insiders said that investors had lost patience with the weak performance and prospects of the Heat to Grazia consumer magazines business. Mike Soutar, a former FHM editor who has raised money to launch a free men’s magazine, said: “This has all the hallmarks of investors who want to see a return; it’s difficult to see what else Emap could have done with its consumer magazines”.

UBM, the specialist publisher, and a string of private equity buyers, such as Apax, the owner of Incisive Media, are expected to look at Emap’s business-to-business division. Radio is expected to prompt interest from Global Radio, which just bought Chrysalis’s radio arm, as well as GCap Media.

Less clear is the future of the consumer magazine arm, valued at about £700 million, which subdivides into a series of specialist titles based in Peterborough, including Angling Times, and its London-based popular titles, including Heat, Grazia, FHM and Zoo.

The dilemma for Emap is that a rump consumer magazine company would not be attractive for investors.

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