UBM hives off Belgian medical print activities into JV

Business events organiser and publisher UBM is hooking up with Belgian-French publishing and printing firm Roularta Media to form a medical print journal joint venture.

UBM Medica and Roularta have merged their respective Belgian professional medical print businesses into ActuaMedica, a 50:50 joint venture company.

The staff and assets relating to UBM Medica's print and digital titles will be combined, as will the prescription pads business of both companies. The joint venture company will retain the rights to publish the Medex directory under licence. ActuaMedica will have its headquarters in Roularta's offices in Brussels.

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UBM stressed it remains committed to the Belgium medical market through its continued 100% ownership of its digital data businesses in Belgium (Medibridge and drug information systems), as well as its

50% equity interest in ActuaMedica.

"ActuaMedica is well placed to prosper in both print and digital as the media market evolves. In parallel we will continue to to build our wholly-owned Belgian data business as part of our UBM Medica EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Africa] operations," said Henry Elkington, Chief Executive Officer of UBM Medica.

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