Informa, the events and exhibitions company, swiftly rejected a lower than expected bid of 450p yesterday from a private equity consortium consisting of Providence Equity, Carlyle Group and Blackstone.

The takeover consortium’s fully funded offer, which values Informa at £1.87 billion, was dismissed out of hand, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

Informa, which owns titles such as Lloyd’s List, had agreed to open its books to the bidders in July after a 506p preliminary approach, worth £2.15 billion, made when the consortium had included Hellman & Friedman, rather than Blackstone.

The source said: “Nothing at all has changed since July to make the company believe its worth has fallen so by so much. The board agreed to open its books at an offer of 506p and that is what they think it’s worth.”

Derek Mapp, Informa’s chairman, said: “The board believes that the revised offer significantly undervalues Informa. Informa has attractive future prospects and is continuing to deliver growth across the business even in the face of a weaker economic environment.” The company confirmed that it had continued to trade in line with its expectations. Shares in Informa closed down by almost 8 per cent at 414½p yesterday.

It remained unclear whether the private equity bidders would return with an improved offer.

A source close to the situation said that the group was no longer prepared to pay its original price for Informa. He said: “This is a full price. I’m not sure there is anything else they can do. The markets are worse and in this sense in the past few months almost everything has worked against the price – 450p is the best they can do.” Even at that price, the deal would make it one of the largest leveraged buyouts since the credit crunch struck last year.

On Tuesday Informa stocks jumped to 440½p, up 14¾p, as speculation rose that the private equity consortium had secured financing. The private equity bidders are understood to have lined up a syndicate of as many as 14 banks led by JPMorgan to provide the majority of the debt. The banks are reported to be prepared to lend between £1.5 billion and £1.8 billion.

Informa employs more than 10,000 people in 40 countries and its business includes conferences, training, book and magazine publishing and databases. It is considered to be a strong performer and has attracted attention from a variety of would-be buyers. A merger attempt by United Business Media ground to halt in June. Carlyle and Apax are also among those that had considered a bid earlier this year.

Blackstone had reportedly first formed a rival bidding group with the Investment Corporation of Dubai for Informa, but decided to switch sides when Dubai withdrew from the partnership. When Hellman & Friedman left the bid led by Providence Equity and Carlyle Group, Blackstone stepped in.

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