Macfarlanes and Ashurst have bagged roles on the sale of publishing house Incisive Media to private equity house Apax Venture Capital for £199m.

The bid sees corporate partner Nicola Richards lead the team for regular Incisive advisers Macfarlanes as the publishing house received a cash offer last week (21 September). Incisive's roster of leading business titles includes Legal Week, Risk and Investment Week.

Macfarlanes also advised Incisive when it acquired the remaining stake in Legal Week last September for £5.7m and on the £35.2m acquisition of Risk Waters Group in 2003.