Informa, the international information, publishing and events business behind titles such as Lloyd's List, is being circled by private equity groups.

Carlyle and Apax are among those considering a bid for the group, which has a market capitalisation of £1.64billion. No approaches are understood to have been made.

Informa's shares have fallen almost 40 per cent since it announced the acquisition of Datamonitor for £502million in May last year amid widespread de-rating of media stocks amid fears of an economic slowdown.

Some analysts have raised concerns about Informa being hit by its high debt levels after the Datamonitor acquisition and partial dependence on the financial services sector.

Others think that Informa is more resilient, believing that the company will hold up well in a downturn. Private equity groups could be attracted to Informa's low exposure to the volatility of the advertising market.

Private equity groups are understood to be looking closely at the company in the hope that debt markets will ease in the near future. The group's high debt levels could make a bid challenging in present market conditions. “I expect it to be a target once the market changes,” one banking source said.

While it is common practice for private equity groups to evaluate companies in the event of a dramatic share-price fall or when there is a reduction in deal activity, Informa is thought to be particularly attractive to some and to be high on their agendas.

In February, Informa bucked the prevailing bleak media sentiment to report strong full-year results and a positive outlook for the coming year.

The world's largest publicly owned conference organiser said that adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to December 31 had risen to £202.6million compared, with £178.1million in the previous year.

It is not the first time that Informa has sparked interest from private equity. In October 2006, it was the subject of a takeover approach by its rival Springer Science & Business Media. The move is likely to have been made by Springer's principal shareholders, the private equity groups Cinven and Candover.

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