Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Informa Plc, publisher of the Lloyd's List maritime newspaper, ended talks with buyout firms Cinven Ltd. and Candover Investments Plc, saying their offer ``significantly undervalues'' the company.

Springer Science & Business Media, whose main shareholders are Cinven and Candover, offered 630 pence per share, London- based Informa said today in a Regulatory News Service statement. Informa said it's terminated discussions with the bidders.

The rejection of the offer may not be the end of the deal, Lorna Tilbian, an analyst at London-based Numis Securities said in a telephone interview. Informa did not initiate the talks and were unwilling sellers, she said.

``Informa's management are a very successful team,'' Tilbian said. ``If Cinven and Candover want the company, they are going to have to come back with a higher offer.'' Her guide price for Informa's shares was between 610 pence and 660 pence, she said.

Informa said its current performance was ``comfortably in line'' with its expectations and it was confident of another set of ``strong'' results next year, which would deliver shareholder value in excess of the 630 pence per share offer.

Shares of Informa rose 15.75 pence, or 2.9 percent, to 557.5 pence in London. The stock has gained 29 percent this year, for a market value of 2.35 billion pounds ($4.46 billion).

Informa shares rose as much as 11.5 percent when talks with the two buyout firms were announced Oct. 19.

A combined Informa and Springer would be a ``good fit,'' and could save 35 million pounds a year and create a new competitor to Reed Elsevier Plc, Meg Geldens, an analyst at London-based Man Securities, said when the talks were disclosed.

Surprise Bid

Informa, which bought Taylor & Francis Plc in 2004, publishes more than 2,000 titles and organizes more than 10,000 conferences annually around the world. It's best known for Lloyd's List, the shipping industry newspaper founded in 1734. Springer publishes more than 1,400 journals and 5,000 new book titles a year, according to its Web site.

Informa said Sept. 26 that first-half sales more than doubled to 533.7 million pounds after it bought conference organizer IIR Plc.

Geldens and other analysts had said they were surprised by the offer for Informa.

``We had expected Informa to bid for Springer, rather than the other way round,'' Numis's Tilbian, said Oct. 19. Conor O'Shea, an analyst at London-based Teather & Greenwood, said at the time that the approach might ``go hostile'' because Informa's management would be a ``reluctant seller.''

Organic Growth

Informa Chief Executive Officer Peter Rigby said in September he planned to concentrate on ``organic'' sales growth following a series of acquisitions.

Earlier this year Informa opened an office in Beijing to bolster sales in China and formed a new company in India to develop local publishing initiatives, as part of its plan to double revenue from emerging markets over the next few years.

Springer Science & Business Media, which isn't connected to German publisher Axel Springer AG, was spun off from Bertelsmann AG's book unit under the name BertelsmannSpringer. It was sold in 2003 to Candover and Cinven, which merged it with Kluwer Academic Publishers the following year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Herlihy in London at Mherlihy1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 3, 2006 12:58 EST