Cavendish advises on the sale of US publishing rights held by Club Media International

Published August 23, 2009

Cavendish Corporate Finance LLP is pleased to announce the sale of Paul Raymond Publications Limited to 207 Investments Limited and the sale of the North American publishing rights held by Club Media International Inc to the Magna Publishing Group.

The Paul Raymond magazine empire was founded in 1966 by entrepreneur and showman Paul Raymond with the launch of MenOnly. During this time Paul Raymond Publications became the market leader in the adult magazine industry, producing a number of well known, high quality magazines. Eight of the company's UK magazines, including Club International, Escort and Mayfair, are in the top ten best selling adult titles and all four of the US titles are Top 10 adult publications in that market. The magazines are sold worldwide with significant sales in the UK and North America and export sales to 26 other countries. With the success of the magazines, Paul Raymond went on to build up Soho Estates to become one of the largest privately owned property companies in the UK.

Cavendish was appointed to manage the sale following the death of Paul Raymond in early 2008. Worldwide interest in the company was received from a range of parties including other adult publishers, management buy-in candidates and entrepreneurs from other industries. In order to maximise the sale opportunity it was decided to split the transaction between the UK and US interests. The UK business has been sold to 207 Investments Limited a newly-formed private investment company. 207 have entered into a management contract with Trojan Publishing Group to manage the business into the future. The US publishing rights have been sold to Magna Publishing Group, a leading publisher of adult titles in the US and also the publisher of SWANK magazine.

The two sale transactions were managed and led by Cavendish partners Raymond Fagan and Peter Gray. Commenting on the sale and the role of Cavendish, Mark Quinn, managing director of PRP and a Trustee of the Paul Raymond Estate, said:
''This was a difficult sale process to manage and involved many more complexities than found in much larger transactions. Raymond and Peter were tenacious throughout and ensured that any set-back was put back on-track, and eventually a successful and satisfactory outcome was delivered for the Trustees.''