Bauer’s late nights suggest Mercury is in its orbit

Staff in Bauer Media Australia’s headquarters have apparently been burning the midnight oil lately, prompting some to wonder whether it is getting close to selling its magazines business to private equity firm Mercury Capital.

Some suspect a deal could be reached as early as this week for the company that owns the Women’s Weekly and Woman’s Day titles and now others such as New Idea and That’s Life! following its $40m acquisition of Pacific Magazines from media company Seven West Media.

Apparently, executives at Bauer have been extremely busy of late on what some believe is a transaction.

Sydney-based Mercury, run by former Goldman Sachs banker Clark Perkins, had been in talks to buy the Bauer Australia magazine business last year once it purchased Pacific Magazines from Seven West Media for $40m.

But it backed away from embarking on a deal when the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission raised red flags about the transaction that has since been approved.

Recently, talks resumed with Mercury, which owns the Blue Star printing company that printed the Bauer New Zealand magazines before the division was shut down.

It is thought that Bauer Media, run by Yvonne Bauer for the past decade, had been reluctant to complete the Pacific Magazines transaction due to the COVID-19 trading conditions but executed the deal because it was legally bound to do so.

It entered the Australian magazine market through the purchase of James Packer’s ACP Magazines business in 2012 for about $500m but the business is now thought to be worth only tens of millions of dollars.

Bauer recently shut its New Zealand magazine arm after insolvency firm EY assisted with a strategic review that resulted in 70 job losses and other major cost cuts across Australia following the Pacific Magazines purchase.