Mediaquest Takes a 5 Magazine Bite Out of The Media Factory

Dubai-based Middle East publisher Mediaquest Corp. (Mediaquest), publisher of the Kipp Report, announced yesterday it has agreed to acquire several long-standing print and on-line media titles from The Media Factory.

The print titles acquired by Mediaquest (which is partially owned by private equity group Abraaj Capital) are also published online. They are:

• Autocar Middle East Magazine (Automobile)
• F1 Racing Middle East Magazine (Automobile)
• FourFourTwo Middle East Magazine (Sports)
• Policy (Business: Insurance)
• The Brief (Business: Law)

The acquisition picking up 3 successful titles of The Media Factory’s 7 consumer publications along with their accompanying online websites could signal The Media Factory pulling out of the UAE consumer publication market.

With the majority of the titles acquired being in the Sports and Automotive category it comes as an almost immediately after the announcement of Abu Dhabi getting a new daily sports publication titled Sports 360° this month funded by Abu Dhabi Group.

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.”

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.