The leading bid for Lloyd’s List B2B publisher and Datamonitor operator Informa has been scuppered by the state of the financial markets. Providence, bidding with Blackstone and Carlyle, offered 450p per share (£1.9 billion), but the trio said they were unable to get financing to fund a higher offer. Informa will now be betting it can weather the economic storm - its shares closed 32 percent below the offer price yesterday at 342p. With so many other B2B outfits in play right now, it’s testing times. Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) said in August its planned divestment of Reed Business Information could take place as early as October.