Cinven and Candover have beaten 15 rivals with a €1.05bn ($1.2bn) bid for BertelsmannSpringer, the specialist publisher it will now merge with Kluwer Academic Publishers.

The prospect of synergies from the merger of BertelsmannSpringer and Kluwer Academic Publishers, to form a new company called Springer, allowed the two pan-European buy-out firms to put in the highest bid.