United News & Media continued to clear the decks yesterday with the £360m sale of exhibitions and trade magazine publisher Miller Freeman Europe to Reed Elsevier.
The sale completes the divestment programme announced last November which had been intended to get United in shape for the now abandoned merger with rival ITV company Carlton Communications.
Its other disposals have included part of the Miller Freeman US business to Dutch publisher VNU last week, a US consumer publishing division and professional images group VCG. United has also sold its prime London headquarters on the South Bank and together the disposals have raised £1.3bn.
Lord Hollick, United's chief executive who at the end of last week put the company's ITV franchises on the auction block, reiterated his pledge to get the best for investors, whatever the outcome for his own ambitions.
"This programme of focusing on our core activities demonstrates United's commitment to putting its shareholders first," he said.
The sale of Miller Freeman's mainland European operations plus the sale of selected assets in the US has shrunk the business by roughly a third. It has hung on to the British exhibition and publishing division, Miller Freeman Asia and the hi-tech based publications in the US.
A United spokesman said the refocusing of the business remained as relevant without the Carlton deal as it had done when the merger was still on course. "The reason for doing this was to focus on markets that we could grow effectively," he said.
The agreement with Reed Elsevier, would make the Anglo-Dutch group the world's largest exhibitions group it said. Miller Freeman Europe organises 100 shows in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Scandanavia from home decorating to food and drink and owns 50 trade magazines.
Shares in United fell back 35p to 955p as hopes of a counter bid for the media concern which also owns the Express newspaper titles continued to recede.
Negotiations with with rival ITV groups Carlton and Granada Media are understood to have been ongoing yesterday over the potential carving up of United's television assets.
Advisers to Lord Hollick have made it clear that he would prefer a bid for the entire group and it remains unclear what the future for United will be if the television assets alone are sold off.
