More than six months after Reed Elsevier announced it was putting Reed Business Information on the block, BusinessWeek parent McGraw-Hill has emerged as one of more than 20 companies that are interested in purchasing the London-based media company’s b-to-b publishing arm.

UBS, the bank that’s organizing the sale, sent information to prospective bidders last week, according to a report [1] in the London Telegraph. Private equity groups Cinven, Permira, Providence Equity Partners and Bain also were reported as interested parties. First round bids are said to be due by mid-August.

In an e-mail to FOLIO:, a McGraw-Hill spokesperson declined to comment.

McGraw-Hill, owner of credit rating firm Standard & Poors, publishes several construction and aviation magazines, including Aviation Week and several titles under its McGraw-Hill Construction division. A number of its titles overlap with RBI titles, which also publishes Variety.

It was not immediately clear if McGraw-Hill is interested in purchasing individual titles or RBI as a whole.

Reed Elsevier last month, in an effort to make sure RBI is sold in one piece, put together a group of banks to lend nearly $1.5 billion [1] to the eventual buyer. Early estimates [1] put an RBI sale at about $2 billion.