Kluwer Academic Publishers, headquartered in Dordrecht, the Netherlands, provides the highest quality information products and services to academic and corporate researchers in humanities & social sciences, environmental & plant sciences, physical sciences, behavioural sciences, engineering & computer sciences and biosciences. Kluwer Academic Publishers operates worldwide from offices in Dordrecht, New York, Boston, London, Lancaster (UK) and Moscow. The company employs around 600 people worldwide and reported sales in 2001 of about EUR 150 million.
Kluwer Academic Publishers annually publishes more than 1200 book titles by reputed researchers from all over the world. Leading authors from all scientific subject areas publish regularly in its 675 scientific journals. Its electronic platform, Kluwer Online at www.kluweronline.com, reaches millions of researchers in more than 50 countries with electronic Journals, eBooks, Custom Books, and eReference Works.
The foreseen sale of Kluwer Academic Publishers is the result of the new focus of the Wolters Kluwer Health cluster. As announced earlier this year, Wolters Kluwer Health will focus on English-reading professionals in the international medical markets. By the end of this year, the cluster's resources will be aligned by 4 customer segments aimed at: pharma, medical information professionals, practitioner info, and clinical tools.
'I am extremely pleased with the outcome of the divestment process of Kluwer Academic Publishers,' says Rob Pieterse, CEO of Wolters Kluwer. 'It was a well- managed process, executed in a tight time schedule and resulting in a good home for the company at a good price. Under the new leadership I expect that Kluwer Academic Publishers will be able to develop well and can capitalize further on the great assets and market position it owns. Wolters Kluwer has realized an important strategic step in tuning its portfolio and intends to use the funds to expand further in its core activities Legal, Tax & Business, Health and Education.'
'We are pleased to announce an agreement for the sale of Kluwer Academic Publishers,' says Hugh Yarrington, member of the Executive Board and responsible for the cluster Health. 'This is an important accomplishment in the program, announced in March of this year, to focus our international health and science assets entirely on the medical markets. The rest of the reorganization program, announced along with our intention to divest Kluwer Academic Publishers, is progressing well and somewhat ahead of schedule.'
Candover and Cinven are both leading players in the field of European private equity. Candover was established in 1980 and has been structured as an investment trust (listed on the London Stock Exchange since 1984). Cinven was founded in 1977 and has been independent and wholly owned by its directors since 1995. Both firms have a long history as investors in businesses they consider successful and have become specialists in arranging and leading large buy-outs and buy-ins across Europe. Candover and Cinven have a long history of supporting management in growing their businesses, both organically and via acquisitions. Their plans for Kluwer Academic Publishers are based on that same philosophy.
Employees, their representative bodies, and unions have been informed and consultation procedures will commence shortly. The transaction is subject to the relevant regulatory approvals.
Note for the editor:
Wolters Kluwer is a multinational information services company with annual revenues of more than EUR 3.8 billion, employing 20,000 people in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. The company's core activities are Legal, Tax & Business, Health, and Education.
The Wolters Kluwer shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam. Preliminary results will be announced in January 2003. The financial results for the year 2002 will be announced on March 11, 2003.
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