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.
It is thought that Reed is aiming to dispose of its magazines arm before its chief executive, Sir Crispin Davis, leaves in March.
The seller financing deal made available by the media group is an attempt to counterbalance the effects of the credit crunch, which has made financing of large leveraged buyouts difficult.
