Taylor & Francis Group plc (“Taylor & Francis”, “Group”), the leading specialist publisher of scientific, academic and professional books and journals, announced today that it has agreed to acquire, subject to the receipt of regulatory clearances, the business and publishing assets of the Dekker group of companies (“Dekker”), a US based Scientific, Technical and Medical (“STM”) publisher from the family owned, Marcel Dekker, Inc. The consideration will be made up of $122.0 million (£72.2 million) in cash, a loan note of $1.6 million (£0.9 million) and a further contingent cash payment at closing estimated to be in the region of $15.0 million (£8.9 million). The cash consideration will be paid from Group cash resources and banking facilities.

Taylor & Francis Group plc (“Taylor & Francis”, “Group”), the leading specialist publisher of scientific, academic and professional books and journals, announced today that it has acquired the business and assets of Swets & Zeitlinger B.V. and A.A. Balkema Uitgevers B.V. (together, “Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers” or “SZP”), the Dutch based Scientific Technical and Medical (“STM”) journal and book publishing business being divested by information services provider Koninklijke Swets & Zeitlinger Holding N.V. The cash consideration of €16.75 million (£11.5 million) will be paid from the Group’s existing cash resources.

Commenting on the Group’s performance and prospects, Chief Executive David Smith said: “The results for the first half demonstrate that the Group’s strategy continues to deliver, even in challenging market conditions. The journals division performed well with strong renewal rates and a good launch programme. In the books division, the good first half publication programme and encouraging US sales led to a solid first half performance. The Group’s performance was also positively impacted by the early publication of several titles.

Informa Group plc ("Informa" or the "Company"), the business information group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of MMS Group Holdings Limited (“MMS”), a leading provider of real time market commentary and analysis primarily for the fixed income and foreign exchange markets, for a consideration of circa US$37 million (£23.7million) on a cash and debt free basis (the "Acquisition").

Peter Rigby, Chairman of Informa Group PLC commented: “We are pleased to report results which again demonstrate the resilience of our business during a period in which trading conditions were made more challenging by the conflict in Iraq and the SARS outbreak. These factors led us to defer a number of events into the second half of the year. However, our major events performed well and our subscription publications and services remained strong.

Taylor & Francis Group plc (“Taylor & Francis”, “Group”), the leading specialist publisher of scientific, academic and professional books and journals, announced today that it has acquired Frank Cass & Co Limited (“Cass” or the “Company”), a London based journal and book publisher specialising in the social sciences and humanities subject areas.

After a successful trial last year, Run for the Children (RFTC), a series of races around the UK which raises money for children's charities, will kick off its 2003 programme with a 3km run in London's Regents Park on Wednesday 23rd April. RFTC will hold nine races in total over the summer months in a variety of attractive and interesting locations* across the UK. The races are aimed at women and children but men are also encouraged to take part with their partners or kids. The races are not just for regular runners - 3km is less than two miles and participants can run, walk or stroll to the finish so there really is no excuse not to take part!

Commenting on the Group's performance and prospectus for the current year, Chief Executive David Smith said: "The results confirm the strength of ou business and the opportunities for growth within the STM publishing market. We have successfully built on our performance in the first half to produce solid organic growth despite the challenging market conditions we identified earlier. Books and journals both performed well and the strategic review carried out during the year has lead to a reorganisation of some of our publishing programmes and the identification of areas for further growth.

Taylor & Francis Group plc (“Taylor & Francis”, “Group”), the leading specialist publisher of scientific, academic and professional books and journals, announced today that it has agreed to acquire the business and assets of the CRC Press group of companies (“CRC”), a US based STM publisher. The cash consideration of $95 million (£60 million) is payable from Group cash resources and banking facilities.

"This was a strong performance achieved in difficult trading conditions. Management took action in the year to reduce costs and rationalise the product portfolio, leading to a significant improvement in our operating margin. In addition, we continued to focus on building our core subscription revenues which now account for 35 per cent of total turnover."

Taylor & Francis Group plc ("Taylor & Francis”, "Group”), the leading specialist publisher of scientific, academic and professional books and journals, announced today that through its subsidiary Taylor & Francis Books Limited, it has acquired Bios Scientific Publishers Limited ("Bios”), the UK based book and journal publisher. The maximum cash consideration of £2.7 million is payable from existing Group cash balances and bank facilities. Founded in 1989, Bios specialises in the biological and medical sciences, publishing some 30-40 new books a year and has a backlist of approximately 250 book titles.