By Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis
Nov 27 (Reuters) - UBM Plc is in the final stages ofdiscussions to divest PR Newswire Association LLC, with Cisionand Vista Equity Partners Management LLC competing to acquirethe press release distributor, people familiar with the mattersaid on Friday.
Cision, a provider of public relations software andintelligence owned by private equity firm GTCR LLC, and VistaEquity, another buyout firm, submitted binding offers for PRNewswire last week, the people said.
However, the leveraged finance markets have been challengingin recent weeks, weighing on the value of the offers and makinga deal uncertain, the people said.
UBM has been looking to sell PR Newswire for more than $700million, and will decide on the sale in the coming days, thepeople added.
The sources asked not to be identified because thenegotiations are confidential. UBM and Cision did notimmediately respond to requests for comment, while Vista Equitydeclined to comment.
UBM is looking to sell PR Newswire so it can focus onincreasing the company's market share in trade shows and events.It bought trade show company Advanstar Communication Inc for$972 million last year.
PR Newswire had revenue of 195.8 million pounds ($300.6million) in 2014, accounting for 26 percent of UBM's totalrevenue and down 3 percent from 2013. Its adjusted operatingprofit was 44.8 million pounds, down 1.8 percent.
GTCR has been acquiring several companies in the publicrelations software space recently. Last year it bought Cisionand merged it with peer Vocus. It subsequently used Cision toacquire Gorkana Group Ltd, a media intelligence and datainsights service provider.
Vista, which focuses on technology investing, has alsopreviously invested in information services companies, such asSTATS LLC, a sports data provided it bought last year. (Reporting by Liana B. Baker and Greg Roumeliotis in New York;Editing by Andrew Hay)
