Shares in Informa, the publisher behind Lloyd's List, the world's oldest daily newspaper, fell 3 per cent today after it announced it is in talks with Springer Science and Business Media about a possible €400 million bid.

The debt-laden company confirmed today that it is "in discussions" about a deal with the German academic publisher adding that it had been "given access to due diligence materials".

Informa said that a tie-up "would be expected to generate significant synergy benefits from rationalisation of the combined cost base plus improved marketing and operating efficiencies".

In a statement, it warned though that there could be "no certainty" that a deal would be done.

The news sent shares in the group, which also organises events and conferences, tumbling 12p, or 3.85 per cent, to 300p amid concern about the necessity for a big rights issue to fund any deal. Informa has net debt of nearly £1 billion.

Springer, which is owned by Candover and Cinven, the private equity groups, had initially aimed to sell a stake of about 49 per cent of the company, but is now set to offload the entire business. The talks with Informa began three weeks ago.

The approach by Informa is a turnaround in a long-running courtships saga. In 2006, Informa was itself the subject of a takeover approach from Springer.

The deal, which was set to create a European publishing champion worth more than £4 billion, was rejected by Informa. It said that the £2.7 billion, 630p-a-share bid significantly undervalued the company.

The approach came at a time of frantic consolidation in the business-to-business publishing sector. That same year, VNU, owner of ACNielsen, the market research firm, was acquired by a consortium of private equity firms while the specialist publishers Euromoney, bought Metal Bulletin, which supplies news to the minerals sector, for £221 million and Apax Partners backed a management buyout of Incisive Media, owner of Legal Week.

In 2007 Informa played down speculation that it could turn the tables on Springer and itself make a bid for its rival. Peter Rigby, the Informa chief executive, said then that "it's not in our plans".

Last year Informa rejected a £1.9 billion takeover bid from a private equity consortium of Providence, Carlyle and Blackstone.

However, many analysts believed that the pair would eventually merge.

A group of private equity companies, including EQT and Apax, are still examining a potential acquisition of a stake in Informa.

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