Information and data company Ascential on Monday confirmed it was considering a break-up of the group.
The announcement came after a Sky News report citing unnamed sources as saying that Ascential, which has a market capitalisation of £1.49bn, is working with investment bankers on plans to demerge its digital operations and list them separately in the US.
“Ascential confirms that it is in the early stages of evaluating the merits of a managed separation of certain assets of the group,” the company said in a statement.
“As discussions are exploratory at this stage, they may or may not lead to the board making a decision to undertake a managed separation of these businesses in due course.”
Under the plans Ascential’s events operations – which include the Cannes Lions and World Retail Congress – would remain listed in London, the Sky report stated.
Ascential describes itself as a “specialist information, analytics and e-commerce optimisation company”.
