The exhibitions group Informa has been approached by a private equity consortium led by Providence Equity Partners, after it snubbed £3.4-billion merger talks with rival United Business Media.

A report in The Times on 13 May said that Informa was being sought out by a number of private equity entities, including Candover, Cinven and Apax. PE group Carlyle is also believed to be part of the consortium.

In a statement, Informa has said that it received an approach from a third party that "may or may not lead to a takeover offer in cash being made for the company", while saying that it was no longer talking to UBM. Informa said it would make another announcement in due course.

Private equity interest in Informa has been heightened by its marginal dependence on advertising, and its fast growing events, conferences and exhibitions businesses. Reports point to concerns over the level of Informa's debt, which could make a private equity bid difficult, while saying that a possible merger with the German publishing group Springer, owned by Candover and Cinven, could create obvious cost synergies.

Candover and Cinven together own Springer Science and Business Media, and had previously approached Informa in October 2006.

In a separate statement announcing the closure of discussions with Informa, UBM said that it was "unable to agree terms with Informa that would be in the best interests of UBM shareholders.'' Sources indicate that Informa's rising share price pressured UBM to offer a premium or give some sort of incentive to Informa shareholders.

A number of UBM shareholders are also understood to have expressed concerns about Informa's high debt levels.

Informa is the publisher of Lloyd's List, and has understood to have been approached by Providence recently, which is one of many private equity firms taking a close look at its business.

Informa's talks with UBM fell through because of irreconcilable differences between the companies' relative share prices. Informa chief executive Peter Rigby was reported to be seeking a premium, while UBM was keen on an all-share nil-premium deal. Analysts suggest that private equity players could afford to pay upto 500p a share for Informa.

In case Providence needs to attract other private equity groups into the consortium for Informa, it would find it easy to sell Informa's low dependence on advertising. However, refinancing Informa's £1.2 billion debt would be a huge challenge.