Reed Elsevier has reduced the asking price of its Business Information division from £1.25bn to £1bn in order to ensure the completion of its sale.Reed is also offering a large vendor loan to finance the purchase for interested bidders. Second-round bids for the division have recently been made. Bidders included Bain Capital and a consortium of TPG and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners. The deadline for the next stage of bidding has not yet been made clear.The deal is to be partially funded with £213m of vendor financing from Reed's own coffers. The deal will also be funded through a pre-arranged staple finance package of $1.26bn from a consortium of banks headed by UBS.