B2B magazine and data publisher Informa is in preliminary talks to buy German academic publisher Springer Science + Business Media, majority owned by European PE houses Cinven and Candover. As it no doubt often has to point out, Springer is not part of German newspaper and mag publisher Axel Springer.

Lloyds List publisher and conference giant Informa announced on Tuesday that it has begun due diligence so it can propose the deal to shareholders, but its shares dropped 5.8 percent from £3.12 at the close of play Monday to £2.93 after the announcement, signaling a cautious response from the City.

There’s no mention of price, but Cinven and Candover were earlier this year in talks with other PE groups to offload up to 49 percent of the Springer unit for €400 million (£360 million)—FT.com reckons Informa will hope to buy the whole division for less than €400 million as Springer grapples with its debt maturities. An acquisition raises the possibility of a rights issue: Informa raised £242 million from a share issue in May.

Informa stresses that the deal may not happen at all, but it’s already trying to win over investors: “Combining Springer and Informa would bring together two highly respected and profitable academic publishers”, it says in the release. “On the right terms, an acquisition of Springer…would be expected to generate significant value for Informa shareholders.”

Why is it good value? It would create a stronger journal lineup and substantial cost savings, or “synergy benefits from rationalisation” as Informa coyly puts it. Springer also has large digital division and publishes more than 30,000 ebooks.

• Informa Expects Little Adverse Effect By Year’s End