Divided Blackwell's board will hold crisis meeting

Rebel shareholder Toby Blackwell has forced them to call the EGM, scheduled for next Thursday. It continues the high-profile public row between Blackwell family members over the future of the historic Oxford company.

Toby Blackwell is determined to sell the company for up to £400m but the board, chaired by his nephew Nigel, wants to keep the academic publisher independent for two or three years, then float it on the London Stock Exchange.

Insiders say Toby Blackwell is prepared to use his shareholding to topple the board to get his way. A simple majority is all he needs to oust the present board or swamp it with new directors of his choosing.

Acquisition-hungry academic publisher Taylor & Francis, which has its journals division in Abingdon, has already put in a formal £300m bid for the privately-owned Oxford company.

Toby Blackwell personally owns 30.1 per cent of the shares. Another 9.1 per cent are owned by the retail arm of the Blackwell empire, Blackwell Ltd, which he controls. On top of that, he says he has the support of a group of minority shareholders who between them own 12.5 per cent.

Toby's son Philip, who is chairman of Blackwell Ltd and a member of the board of Blackwell Publishing, owns about 5.3 per cent of the publishing company. Now the Blackwell Publishing board's advisers, Morgan Stanley, are investigating the options: selling the company to the highest bidder; keeping it in the Blackwell family; floating it on the London Stock Exchange; or raising money from venture capitalists to stage a management buyout to pay off rebel shareholders.

Commenting on the buy-out option, Toby Blackwell said: "I think they could only raise about £200m by that route."

Taylor & Francis's chief executive, Anthony Selvey, put in a £300m bid for Blackwell Publishing but received no reply from the board, so he circulated it to shareholders.

He said money was in place in the form of loans from banks to pay for the firm.