Uncertainty reigns in the printed news media, but one thing is certain: a lot of people have lost a lot of money by betting on newspapers and magazines. Ingenious Media Active Capital, a fund managed by Ingenious Media, has written off at least £10 million on its investment in B2B magazine publisher Incisive Media, making the value of its stake close to zero. Telegraph.co.uk reported the loss earlier this week and a senior source from Incisive confirmed to us the investment had been written down, but added that Ingenious has not walked away from its investment and it remains a minor shareholder: the write-down reflects an updated mark-to-market valuation of the company’s stake. The investment’s value could also rise if and when the company sees an upturn in fortunes. Ingenious Media declined to comment.
Incisive remains profitable and has some big and durable brands like Accountancy Age and Legal Week but it admits to having a financing problem and in February admitted its profits-to-debt ratio had dropped below an agreed level on a loan took out in 2006 as part of its takeover by Apax Partners. We understand talks are on-going with Incisive’s lenders and that both sides are in the latter stages of securing a re-financing deal. As well as its magazines, Incisive publishes a raft of companion sites as well as Theinquirer.net, VNUNet.com and Clickz.com.
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