Business information and exhibitions firm RELX Group PLC (LON:REL) is understood to be planning a £100mln takeover of weekly magazine Times Higher Education.
RELX’s Elsevier arm, which publishes The Lancet medical journal, is expected to submit an offer for the higher education division of TES Global, Sky News reported.
The firm, previously known as Reed Elsevier, is understood to be among a number of suitors expected to take part in an auction of the Times Higher Education. Sources told Sky that private equity firms were also among the interested parties.
RELX and TES Global already have a partnership under which Times Higher Education already uses Elsevier’s data to produce its global university rankings.
The auction of Times Higher Education, which focuses on university students, is being overseen by bankers at Macquarie Capital.
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The remainder of TES Global's business, which relate to the education of children aged between five and 12 and includes the magazine previously called The Times Education Supplement, is being sold separately by Jefferies.