Charterhouse swots up on Reed's business

Charterhouse, the private equity owner of the Times Educational Supplement (TES), has emerged as a possible bidder in the £1.25bn race for New Scientist publisher Reed Business Information (RBI).

UBS, the bank advising RBI parent Reed Elsevier, is expected to send out an information memorandum by mid-May.

A media industry source said that Charterhouse would be keen on merging RBI's totaljobs.com with the TES's jobs site. A source close to Charterhouse added: "RBI might be an interesting business, yes. When it becomes available we will sit down and see if we're going to go for it."

Apax, the private equity giant that recently bought RBI's rival publisher Emap, has cooled on a possible bid but is also likely to be sent information. A source said that Apax would have been interested in RBI's events businesses, but Reed Elsevier plans to retain them.

RBI's portfolio also includes Computer Weekly, Estates Gazette and Poultry World.