The sale of Trinity Mirror's magazines and exhibitions business — Inside Communications — won't affect jobs in its London and Coventry bases, according to new owners Ocean Media.
The £41.5 million sale to the private equity-backed firm includes a series of specialist magazines including Bridal Buyer, Build It, Which Bike and market-leading social housing magazine Inside Housing. ICL also runs the National Boat, Caravan and Outdoor Show.
ICL employs 120 staff in London and Coventry, about half of whom work on its magazines.
Interim chairman of Ocean Media, Ulric Kenny, said: "The business is very efficiently run at present, so it isn't a question of looking for further cost savings, it's about growing the revenue lines aggressively in the future, which will involve more rather than less employment."
He added: "Our intentions are to maintain the UK offices and grow them in the next few years. We mostly have UK ambitions for the business and maybe into the continent."
Ocean Media was set up for the transaction, backed by private equity firm, Ion Equity, and ICL's existing management team, David Moran and Simon Malcolm.
Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, said the decision to sell was based on the fact that ICL was not core to the TM publishing portfolio.
Also, the ICL management team would have greater scope for development under their direct ownership.
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