£96m magazines deal blocked

PLANS to create the UK's third-largest consumer magazines group were thrown into doubt today after the Office of Fair Trading announced it was referring Future's proposed £96.5m acquisition of rival Highbury House Communications to the Competition Commission.

The OFT said it believed the merger would result in a substantial lessening of competition in the computer games magazines market. Highbury publishes a diverse range of magazines including Fast Car and Real Homes, while Future's titles include Guitar, Cross Stitcher and Maximum PC.

The combined group would have leap-frogged the BBC into third place in the consumer magazines market but behind IPC and Emap in terms of retail sales value.

The Competition Commission investigation is not likely to be completed until the end of September. Future had expected to derive at least £4.5m in annual savings from the deal, thanks to improved supply terms with printing and paper companies. There would also have been considerable savings from the elimination of duplication, particularly back office functions such as accounting and finance.

Future, founded in 1985, publishes more than 100 special interest consumer magazines, with more than 1,200 staff at its headquarters in Bath and offices across Europe and the US. Its games magazines include 101 PC Games, Duel Masters, Edge, Game Boy Advance, GamesMaster, Joypad, Jeux Video Magazine, Jetix and Giochi per il Mio Computer in Italy.

Highbury, is based in London and employs 1,000 staff with operations worldwide. It publishes more than 200 consumer, business-to-business and contract magazines, including Front, the monthly men's magazine.

In January Highbury completed the sale of its local publications business to Archant for £6.1m. The titles include a range of lifestyle magazines in London and the South East, and were highly profitable.