in partnership with Ernst & Young.

Tim Weller didn’t consider acquisitions for several years after starting his publishing company – then called City Financial – in 1995. Then he set his sights on entering and new markets and the deals began flow.

‘The first reason for setting up on my own was that I had no choice,’ Weller cheerfully admits. ‘I had lost my job. I could either take myself to another company or give it a go. All I wanted was a business plan that I had written to be released from Reuters. I was broke. I had a pot-bellied pig, three children and a hole in the roof. I had to have a go.’

Weller’s big idea was a magazine called Investment Week. Weller started to add events – such as conferences, awards and exhibitions – and developed new publications that focused on other target groups within the retail financial services sector. He quickly developed online offerings for his titles as the possibilities of the internet started to become clear. His business model – ‘delivering content via print, in person and through portals’ – had emerged.

By 1999 City Financial’s turnover had reached £7.3 million. Its penetration of its chosen sector was deep. ‘The only way to go forward was to find other sectors and develop the same strategy,’ says Weller. ‘We had money in the bank and were profitable. But how were we to do it? We had to get someone on board to help extend the experience of the company.’ In a flurry of activity through 1999 and 2000 Weller brought in the private equity house Kleinwort Capital, acquired the Timothy Benn Publishing Group (thus gaining the magazine Post, the Bible of the insurance industry), re-branded the company Incisive Media and then floated it in December 2000.

The past five years have seen Weller use acquisitions consistently to take Incisive into new areas, the most significant of which was that of Risk Waters in 2003 for £35.1 million. Acquisitions are there to accelerate Incisive’s organic growth, and Weller has set out disciplined criteria to ensure that each new purchase will add real value. These criteria include the quality of the brand/asset; whether it is in an attractive vertical sector; the scope of its brand reach; the robustness of its core earnings; and the value of hard or soft synergies.

‘You have got to trust your instinct,’ says Weller. ‘But never bet what you have built. If it adds, it adds. If it doesn’t, it can’t subtract. You must stick to your knitting and what you know. We will walk away from a deal – and have done so – because the prices would have placed an undue strain on the business. We won’t do turnarounds. We have to be in growth markets. The target has to be pre-eminent (at least number two) and have products that can be built out across whatever platform. But we won’t take barking risks.’

The paranoia of the start-up has never left Weller: ‘I have still got too much to lose. If it works for the shareholder, then it will work for me.’ Weller also recognises the value of capturing and keeping the entrepreneurial spirit of a newly acquired company. ‘Virtually all of the businesses that we have acquired have been entrepreneurially built,’ he says. ‘That leaves a vibrant culture behind and one that we can plug into.’

This article was originally published in Masterclass magazine.