London Stock Exchange to List Porn Publisher

Many Titles in Group's Portfolio Previously Owned by Newspaper Magnate Richard Desmond

LONDON - The Guardian reports that adult magazine shell group Interactive Publishing goes public next week on the junior Plus Market of the London Stock Exchange, marking the first listing for a pornographic publisher on the trading board.

At the same time, the company is entering a reverse takeover deal with Trojan Publishing, a private business whose portfolio of adult mags includes Asian Babes, Forty Plus and New Talent.

In June 2006, Trojan acquired about a dozen mostly adult magazines from British Virgin Islands-registered AML Publishing Trust. A month later, it signed a licensing deal with Penthouse for Forum magazine.

Last year, Trojan bought the rights to about 30 magazine titles formerly owned by Express Newspapers magnate Richard Desmond under the banner Northern and Shell. Desmond sold Northern and Shell in 2004 to Remnant Media, which in turn was snapped up by Trojan.

Ironically, the man behind Remnant Media, Simon Robinson, was a onetime director at Trojan and journalist for Express Newspapers. Robinson acquired the Northern and Shell titles in a £10.8 million deal partly financed by a loan from owner Desmond. Robinson had a bankruptcy order made against him two months ago.

Interactive Publishing was formed four months ago, and plans with its public offering to raise £500,000 in order to expand Trojan's portfolio of titles with more non-adult magazines. Currently, it owns soccer journal The League, cooking periodical Fresh and Women's Fitness.