I pull out a copy of the interview page to show Peter Rigby. What a surprise,
it’s last year’s interview with David Levin, chief executive of United
Business Media (UBM).
“Ah yes,” smiles Informa boss Rigby. “I found it online.”
Amazing. And? “It was very interesting.” I’ll bet. Rigby, an effervescent
business builder, and Levin, a cerebral corporate technician, have been
cooking up a merger plan for a couple of months now. It was leaked to the
press last week, causing a certain amount of backtracking.
The official line is that Informa and UBM are plotting a “merger of equals”,
marrying two rising giants of the business publishing and conference world –
and they are still discussing it.
Then the stories appeared saying that Levin would run it, with Rigby pushed up
to chairman. Informa’s share price jumped, UBM’s went down, and Rigby, I
would guess, feels like he is being bounced.
“Our team didn’t leak it,” he says pointedly. And nothing’s agreed yet. “We’re
working hard to see if this deal can take place and be done on a friendly
basis.”
That’s if events don’t overwhelm everyone first. UBM might have to pay a
premium, Informa might walk away, a counter-bid from private equity could
emerge.
For Rigby, a jug-eared, spikey-haired northerner who has spent 25 years at his
company in its various guises – and 19 years heading it, jumping from chief
executive to chairman and back – it could be a bumpy ride.
If he is anxious, though, he doesn’t show it. Aged 52, short and wiry, he
slips into Informa’s reception with the innocence of a new recruit. His suit
looks too big, his hair is still wet from the gym.
“Have a croissant,” he says, when we reach the boardroom. “I’ve had one – I
feel I’ve earned it.”
That fits with the Rigby regime. He is a sports nut who runs four miles a day,
commutes into London from his Gloucestershire home at 5am, and is renowned
for dashing round Informa’s global empire negotiating profit-share deals
with its myriad subsidiary bosses.
No wonder colleagues say Rigby is different. “Peter’s an Alka-Seltzer dropped
into water,” says Derek Mapp, Informa’s senior non-executive director. “You
can’t imagine him ever sitting still.”
You can’t imagine him ever sacking anyone, either. He’s too nice. The smile is
handsome, the eyes twinkle, he cracks jokes with flat, near-Manchester
vowels. “Born in Southport, now part of Merseyside, but proud to call myself
a Lancastrian,” he laughs.
Beneath, there must be a flintier core. The son of a painter and decorator,
Rigby has built Informa into one of the biggest conference organisers in the
world, and a leading technical publisher with titles including Lloyd’s List
among its jewels.
Such publishing/conference combos – UBM is another – may not have the glamour
of mainstream media owners, but they are handling the transition to digital
more adroitly, linking customers to data services and face-to-face events.
For Informa, which can trace its roots to the newsletter firm Stonehart in the
1980s, rolling out its brands globally has also earned it handsome returns:
£124m pretax profit on £1.1 billion revenues in 2007.
However, it bought training and conference company IIR for £768m in 2005, and
intelligence group Datamonitor for £502m in 2007, and piled on debt. With an
economic downturn on the cards, heavy debts get tougher to service – hence
the logic of a tie-up with debt-light UBM.
Informa also lost its last chief executive three months ago, when Lloyd’s List
veteran David Gilbertson left to become boss of Emap. Rigby and Gilbertson
had worked closely, the former running the conference side, the latter
publishing, in almost interchangeable roles.
Rigby jumped from chairman to chief executive again – but you can see why some
think Levin’s merger offer is timely.
Rigby bats that away. “It’s not to solve a debt problem or a CEO problem. We
are a fantastically balanced business, 60% of profits come from publishing
subscriptions, we have really good geographic spread, our Dubai office is
really motoring. Only 3% of our revenues come from advertising.”
As for changing jobs, he shrugs. “I was always joint CEO, but not allowed to
be.”
Certainly Rigby and Gilbertson were near-equal earners last year, with £1.1m
in pay. Rigby is also a yo-yo: chief executive to 1998, chairman to 2004,
chief executive to 2007, chairman to 2008.
That, he says, is a function of the way the company has grown. Stonehart was
absorbed by the conference specialist IBC in 1986, then renamed Informa when
it merged with Lloyd’s List owner LLP in 1998, then merged with academic
publisher Taylor & Francis in 2004. Titles get stretched as new talent
is absorbed.
And to those who say a “merger of equals” can’t work?
“We’ve done two,” cuts in Rigby. “And it works so long as you get two things
right: you can’t put a cigarette paper between the management, so nobody can
get picked off; and everyone knows it is about revenue enhancement, not cost
collapse. Most deals are done on cost collapse, which makes people anxious
and they leave. What we do is predicated on revenue enhancement.”
What if shareholders expect both? It won’t work, he explains. Informa’s
businesses are about specialist expertise – the value is not just the brands
but the people. Lose them, and the business sinks.
This is why he devises complicated profit-share schemes to tie subsidiary
bosses in and encourage entrepreneurial flair. Rigby, who trained in
accounting, negotiates each one personally. “We have 80 or 90 managing
directors running their own businesses.” You get the impression that Rigby
is the glue that holds it all together.
Maybe that’s the point he wants to make. So how would he feel if a
private-equity bid pushed him out? His board rejected an approach from
Cinven and Candover in 2006. This time, it might be tougher.
For the only moment in the interview, his ebullience drops. “Erm, look, I’ll
try and do the right thing by shareholders, but it would be a shame to break
up the business.”
Colleagues say Rigby always puts the team first. “Some bosses lead by
bullying, some do it by bringing along the collective – Peter is the
latter,” says Mapp.
Rigby puts that down to his love of sports. He was captain of rugby and
vice-captain of cricket at his grammar school. Born the only son – he has a
younger sister – in a family of modest means, he went to Manchester
University so he could nip home at weekends to play rugby for his local club.
He turned a degree in economics into an accounting job at the multinational
company Metal Box, first in Speke, then near Swindon, at its yoghurt pot
factory. What he learnt there was vital. “It showed me how you can move
brands round geographically and extend them.”
He jumped to nearby Book Club Associates because he wanted “to move upwards
faster”. Publishing was an eye-opener. “Different pricing, different
creative juices,” he says.
By 1983 Rigby had joined Stonehart, set up by entrepreneur Sylvester Stein. It
had 150 employees, a clutch of titles and a real chairman in Sir Christopher
Bland. “We had aspirations,” says Rigby.
When newly-listed IBC bought Stonehart in 1986, those aspirations were
fulfilled. Rigby was promoted to finance director at the age of 31. Three
years later he was chief executive. There he developed his terrier style –
adaptable, motivational, always with an eye to a deal – while expanding the
firm through the 1990s.
Gilbertson describes his friend as “high energy, enthusiastic and tireless”,
but more money-focused than his charm suggests.
“Peter likes people. He keeps lots of friendships within the business, but
everything is built around the profit imperative. One of the things about
last week’s press coverage is that it makes Informa look beleaguered. It
isn’t. It’s a stronger business than UBM.”
And it was UBM’s Levin who asked for the merger talks. Rigby met him at
London’s Charlotte Street hotel in December – “Nothing serious, just
social,” says Rigby. Another dinner followed, but then serious talks
started in April. The two firms make a good fit, with little duplication and
complementary global spread, but who needs who more?
Rigby doesn’t answer. None of his big deals has ever leaked in this way. He
knows that if UBM pays a premium, it will have every right to eject
Informa’s senior team.
“If it turns out that way, it is more problematic,” he says, “because people
inside will feel like they have been taken over. We have to work very hard
with people here, it’s about the niche-ness, the specialisms.”
There has already been speculation that Informa’s training division will go.
“Yeah, I’ve read UBM’s PR Newswire is going too. Look,” he adds, “there have
been no talks about selling anything.”
Nor have he and Levin discussed future roles. I would guess Rigby wants
executive power.
His response? “My wife wasn’t very happy with the implication that I might be
out on the streets soon.” Rigby’s wife Clare – his second marriage – once
ran construction law conferences for Informa.
Everyone has an opinion on this merger. Which is why he is speaking to me, of
course. But if both sides are using the press, surely the chances of that
“merger of equals” diminishes day by day?
“We will have a definitive answer in three to four weeks,” says Rigby. And
from his demeanour I would guess he is as happy to walk away as do the deal.
We shall see.
PETER RIGBY’S WORKING DAY
THE Informa chief executive wakes at his home near Cirencester,
Gloucestershire, at 4.45am, and is collected by car at 5am. Peter Rigby
commutes two hours in and out of London every day. “I’m in my second
marriage. I have two little girls. I want to be home every night.”
After an hour in the Langham hotel gym in London, he starts meetings at 8am.
Twelve executives report directly to him. He rarely lunches out, and often
meets contacts for coffee in the bakery round the corner from Informa’s
Mortimer Street base.
He is driven home at 6pm, spending two hours on calls in the car. “I can do
the US then,” he says.
VITAL STATISTICS
Born: July 30, 1955
Marital status: married, with three children
School: King George V grammar, Southport
University: Manchester
First job: trainee accountant at Metal Box
Salary package: £1.1m
Home: Gloucestershire
Car: blue Audi R8
Favourite book: Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K Jerome
Favourite music: Van Morrison, Rod Stewart
Favourite film: any of the Indiana Jones movies, starring Harrison
Ford
Favourite gadget: Jura coffee machine
Last holiday: skiing in Aspen
DOWNTIME
PETER RIGBY runs to relax. “Four miles in the gym every morning, and more at
weekends in the lanes at home.” He is also a big London Irish rugby fan and
has attended every Rugby World Cup. He has even been offered the chance to
coach at his local rugby club – “but I haven’t the time”.
Otherwise he likes to hang around with his family. Rigby has two daughters
under 10, and a 27-year-old son from his first marriage.
He has recently bought himself a second hand Audi R8 sports car. Late male
menopause? “Thank you very much.”
