LONDON, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- ICIS, the commodity market information business of Reed Business Information UK Ltd, has today announced its acquisition of Heren Energy Ltd.

Heren Energy is Europe's leading gas, power and carbon market information provider and this acquisition provides ICIS with the opportunity for greater geographic coverage of international energy markets and additional sales points for Heren products through the global network of ICIS offices. The acquisition also provides the opportunity to broaden the spread of markets currently covered by Heren, as well as providing support for entry into new vertical energy markets.

In line with other energy commodities, gas and power markets have seen a period of unprecedented high and volatile prices. In Europe, markets are liberalising; this is a key driver of future growth as is reflected in the UK experience of liberalised energy markets.

ICIS Publishing Director, Christopher Flook said: "The acquisition of Heren Energy Ltd provides ICIS with a strong opportunity to extend our footprint outside of petrochemicals and into other energy markets. There are strong synergies between ICIS and Heren, driven by Heren's first mover advantage in this market and strong reputation and the ICIS core competencies of price reporting, online content delivery and web marketing."

Heren is highly regarded for its integrity, reliability and editorial excellence. The authoritative multi-lingual reporting staff deploys their knowledge across the wider commercial, economic, regulatory and legal spectrum to provide a rich and comprehensive analysis of market movements that define the energy marketplace. These impartial gas and power indicators are industry benchmarks, used extensively throughout Britain and Europe for short and long-term contracts as well as forming the basis for retail market gas and power tracker tariffs for key industry players including nPower and Centrica.

Patrick Heren, Publisher and founder of Heren Energy said: "This is an exciting opportunity for Heren Energy. The global reach of ICIS will bring significant benefits to the Heren business and customers as well as providing the framework of a large organisation to facilitate organic growth."

ICIS

http://www.icis.com

ICIS is the world's largest information provider for the chemical and oil industry, assisting companies in global commodity markets to improve their revenues and profits by providing high quality, timely, commercially useful information, business leads and brand positioning across the world.

Our global team of around 200 people based in London, Houston, Singapore, New York, Washington, San Francisco, Shanghai, Moscow and Mumbai strives to deliver definitive global chemical intelligence.

About Reed Business Information UK

http://www.reedbusiness.co.uk

Reed Business Information UK is a leading B2B online media and publishing company, with an award-winning portfolio of branded community websites, online subscription services, web based directories and vertical search products. Part of the Reed Elsevier Group, RBI has annual sales of $500 million, with globally recognised brands in 18 vertical markets in the UK, Europe, USA and Asia.

About Heren Energy

http://www.heren.com

Heren Energy is Europe's leading gas, power and carbon market information provider and was the first energy publisher to market a daily European gas report in 1995 (European Spot Gas Markets). This publication complemented the already established fortnightly gas report first published in 1994 (European Gas Markets). Subsequent coverage expanded into power in 1997 (European Daily Electricity Markets), carbon in 2005 (European Daily Carbon Markets) and global LNG in 2005 (Heren LNG Markets). In addition to the gas and power energy procurement report (I&C Energy Snapshot) launched in 1998 and the monthly gas and power end-user publication (End-User Energy Price Report) launched in 2007, Heren Energy now offers a comprehensive energy information solution to key price, news and analysis requirements.

Press enquiries to: The van Tulleken Company, London, Michael Doyle, +44(0)207-235-1099, John Kiely (Smithfield), +44(0)207-360-4900; Corporate Communications, Reed Business Information, London, Gill East, +44(0)20-8652-8825