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The Informa Group has acquired the Financial Times’ newsletter division and Baskerville Communications, adding hundreds of titles to its portfolio.

The company has gained 60 subscription-based newsletters, seven magazines, 600 management reports and 24 directories from Financial Times Business. The acquisition of Baskerville Communications Corporation gives it another 13 telecommunication titles.

As part of the £13.5 million FTB deal, Informa, which publishes Lloyd’s List, Energy Today and Business Risk, has been given permission to use the FT brand for three months.

“We’ll take advantage of the FT branding while we can,” said Informa chairman Peter Rigby.

“Although I think many of the newsletter titles themselves, like Mobile Communications or the Telecoms World magazine are a brand in themselves.”

The double acquisition will not alter Informa’s sales strategy, according to Rigby. “Niche product marketing has always been Informa’s strength, unlike the FTB and Baskerville groups. A lack of resources hindered Baskerville’s efforts to push subscription sales, even though it had a relatively small list of titles. FTB had the massive capital of the Financial Times behind it, but it was not really part of FT’s mainstream core of activities,” he said. Informa takes on BCC’s net liability of £3.1 million in future subscription income as part of the deal.

Despite the two takeovers, Informa still has a substantial war chest for acquisitions. Figures published when it announced its interim results for the year to June 30, revealed a potential to spend as much as £50 million on acquisitions, (Media Week, August 27).