The Takeover Panel yesterday forced the pair to admit they had approached the publisher of Lloyd's List with a cash offer after fluctuations in its share price, according to the Financial Times.
They did not disclose how much the offer valued the company at, but it is expected to be 450p-550p per share. A 500p per-share deal would value the company at more than £2.1bn.
Informa shares closed yesterday up 6p to 435p and have opened at the same level this morning.
Crucially, Providence and Carlyle have been able to find banks to finance their deal despite the reluctance of lenders to fund leveraged buyouts since the onset of the credit crunch.
They have lined up around £1.85bn in bank financing. The total cost of the deal to them, including Informa's £1.25bn net debt, is likely to come in at between £3bn and £3.5bn.
Earlier this week Informa and rival business media company UBM called off talks about an all-share merger.
UBM had made the approach but found itself priced out of a deal when interest from private equity in Informa propelled its share price upwards.
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