Guardian Media Group and Apax Partners have received a boost from their troubled investment in the media giant formerly known as Emap as they offloaded its car data business CAP for an estimated £175m yesterday.

Dame Helen Alexander is understood to have been handed the role of chairman at FTSE-250 trade magazine publisher and events organiser United Business Media.

Emap, the debt-laden media group, is being split into three operating companies in a move which seems likely to pave the way for a break-up.

Publishing and events business Emap is understood to have lined up corporate adviser Hawkpoint to sell its trade magazines business, which includes industry-leading titles Nursing Times and Broadcast.

The publishing group Emap has poached BSkyB's Duncan Painter to take over as chief executive, replacing David Gilbertson who surprised the market when he quit in May.

David Gilbertson is set to step down as chief executive of the magazine group Emap International, which publishes Retail Week and Screen International, after three years.

Aldermore, the new British bank, has appointed the former head of Barclays' £60bn mortgage business as a non-executive director.

Aldermore, one of a bevy of new banking groups in Britain, yesterday signalled its intent by appointing former Emap group managing director Sir David Arculus as its new chairman.

Guardian Media Group revealed yesterday that its outgoing chief executive Carolyn McCall received a bonus of £143,000 last year in spite of the company recording pre-tax losses of £171m.

Guardian Media Group (GMG), owner of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers, is set to take a significant hit on its investment in publisher Emap, sending it to an annual loss for the second year in a row.

The Guardian may now be housed in fancy offices near Kings Cross, complete with their own theatre, but its spiritual home is Manchester. There, some hundred years after it was founded in 1821, the paper joined forces with the Manchester Evening News. The usually loss-making Guardian was for years subsidised by the profitable afternoon newspaper.