Middle East Publisher Mediaquest Acquires Titles from The Media Factory

Middle East Publisher Mediaquest Acquires Titles from The Media Factory

Mediaquest also acquired the rights from Haymarket to publish the Middle East version of Autosport.com, the world’s leading motor sport website.

September 23, 2010 9:26 by Rasha Reslan

DUBAI: Dubai-based Middle East publisher Mediaquest Corp. (Mediaquest), which is partially owned by private equity group Abraaj Capital, today announces it agreed to acquire several long-standing print and on-line media titles from The Media Factory. Both Mediaquest and The Media Factory are registered in the Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone.

The print titles, which are also published on-line, are:

• Autocar Middle East Magazine

• F1 Racing Middle East Magazine

• Policy

• FourFourTwo Middle East Magazine

• The Brief

Autocar, F1 Racing and FourFourTwo were titles licensed to The Media Factory by Haymarket Media Group Ltd, which are now licensed to Mediaquest.

Mediaquest also acquired the rights from Haymarket to publish the Middle East version of Autosport.com, the world’s leading motor sport website. These market-leading titles will continue to be supplemented by successful events, such as Insurex and the Autocar Awards, as well as numerous print special supplements.

Alexandre Hawari, co-CEO of Mediaquest (trade license 40043), said: “The Media Factory is an established and respected publisher of a number of quality titles. The titles we have acquired are all market leaders in their respective fields. Mediaquest has a proven track record of publishing quality magazines and we believe we can develop these titles further by taking them to new markets to exploit fully their potential, particularly in the Arabic-speaking segment.

Tim Bulley, Licensing Director at Haymarket Media Group commented that “Haymarket is very excited to be growing its licensed portfolio with Mediaquest. We have enjoyed a strong relationship with The Media Factory over the last six years who through their unrelenting commitment to editorial excellence have built highly successful local editions of our brands. We look forward to our new partnership with Mediaquest and are excited about their ambitions for our brands moving forward. We are confident that they will build on the strong foundations set by TMF,” he said.

Speaking for The Media Factory (trade license 30164), CEO Andrea Slater said: “We have given these titles a good commercial start and we are more than confident that Mediaquest will continue to publish them to the same standard established by The Media Factory. We wish Mediaquest a prosperous and beneficial future publishing these brands as they move forward into an improving economic landscape.

Mediaquest’s Julien Hawari added: “We are fortunate to have created a talent pool of multilingual and experienced publishing professionals in our editorial, design, sales and marketing teams. This gives us the great confidence to launch these titles into new markets, and provide readers and advertisers with a wider choice of quality media.”

Mediaquest is a publishing house founded in Paris in 1987. Today it publishes in three languages with operations on three continents. It has offices in Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon and Paris, and owns or represents more than 25 consumer and trade titles covering business, marketing, communications, women’s interests, lifestyle and entertainment. These include Trends, Saneou Al Hadath, Arabies, Communicate and GMR.

Abraaj Capital is the biggest private equity group in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA). With its headquarters in Dubai, the Abraaj Group operates eight offices in the region. Since 2002, it has raised close to US$ 7 billion and distributed almost US$ 3 billion to its investors.