Thought the boom in private equity media investment was over? Not so for German scientific and medical publisher Springer Science and Business Media which is set to sell a 49 percent stake to PE investors for €400 million (£360.9 million), according to FT.com. The company, which belongs to UK PE firms Candover and Cinven, has appointed Goldman Sachs and UBS to advise on the sale and groups including Blackstone, CVC Capital Partners, TPG, Carlyle, Providence Equity Partners and others are all reported to be considering first-round bids, which are due by next month.

Springer CEO Derk Haank says in a Q&A on the company’s website that while the company isn’t looking to sell itself entirely, the board is looking to bring in a third investor alongside Candover and Cinven to pay off its €2.16 billion (£1.9 billion) of debt and fund possible future acquisitions. FT.com suggests that the draw for PE investors would be an eventual merger with London-listed B2B publisher Informa, which last year turned down a £1.9 billion takeover bid from a consortium including Providence and Carlyle.