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Reed offers new shares
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November 29, 2000: 7:16 a.m. ET
Anglo-Dutch publisher to issue up to 9.9% of share capital for Harcourt buy
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier on Wednesday said it was selling shares to raise about a third of the £3.1 billion ($4.5 billion) it agreed to pay last month for U.S. textbook publisher Harcourt General Inc.
Reed International PLC, the London-listed co-owner of Reed Elsevier, and its Dutch partner Elsevier NV will each increase their share capital by up to 9.9 percent via the share offerings, which are being pitched to institutional investors. At Tuesday's closing prices, the offer would raise about £1.2 billion ($1.7 billion).
 Reed International (REED) shares slipped 0.2 percent to 647 pence in late morning trade, recovering from an earlier fall of 4.3 percent. Elsevier shares were down 2.5 percent at  14.99 in Amsterdam, having earlier shed as much as 4.8 percent. The companies each own 50 percent of Reed Elsevier.
Reed Elsevier said last month it was buying Harcourt (H: Research, Estimates) for $4.5 billion in cash. As part of the deal, the European company will assume approximately $1.2 billion in Harcourt debt, but agreed to sell certain Harcourt educational publishing businesses to Canadian publisher Thomson Corp. for $2.06 billion.
Reed had said it intended to finance the deal with a $6.5 billion bank loan that it would refinance by selling bonds or new stock equal to as much as 10 percent of its share capital.
The offering begins Wednesday and is expected to close at the end of business on Thursday. Pricing and allotment of shares will be announced Friday. Underwriters to the sale are ABN Amro Rothschild, Cazenove & Co. and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
Reed Elsevier, which owns the Lexis-Nexis data search service and Cahners Business Information, also said that its business so far in its fiscal second half was performing in line its expectations. 
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Reed Elsevier
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