Quarterly magazine, Spear’s wealth management survey, has undergone a management buyout just two years after being acquired by Luxury Publishing.
Editor in chief William Cash, a former Times foreign correspondent, led the buyout from high-end contract publishing firm Luxury Publishing, whose other titles include the magazines Quintessentially and Cartier.
Cash will take a 67 per cent interest in Spear’s with private equity firm Nectar Capital, which also backs Luxury Publishing, taking a 33 per cent stake.
Private investment has provided the funding. Other terms were not disclosed however Press Gazette understands that financing for the buyout, which was completed yesterday, runs into the high six figures.
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The magazine, which was founded by Cash in 2005, was bought after just four issues by Luxury Publishing in July, 2007, along with a range of smaller customer titles, in a deal worth around £1.2m.
Cash said: “When people don’t have as much money as they used to they are desperate to hang on to what they have got. For them we are like the Michelin Guide for wealth management.”
He said a traditional advertising model would not be enough to support businesses like his and that multiple revenue streams were necessary. The move to again become independent, he added, would herald a move into book publishing, expansion online and the further development of its book and wealth management events.
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Cash said: “By taking Spear’s independent again and expanding the business into book publishing and further onto the web, we will continue to outwit the recession.”
Last year Spear’s launched a Russian edition, in partnership Mediacrat, and intends to shortly launch an Asian edition.
The magazine claims a circulation, unofficially audited, of just under 30,000, of which around 10,000 copies are distributed in BA’s first class lounges and the remainder sent to wealthy subscribers and members of the finance industry.
A request for comment from Luxury Publishing had not been returned.
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