According to reports in the UK press over the weekend ..

HOB learns that a  Dubai government-owned company has teamed up with private equity group Blackstone and others in a bid to buy media group Informa.

Business Intelligence Middle East reports:

Bankers will this week finalise a multi-billion-dollar loan that could provide one of Dubai's largest sovereign wealth funds with the firepower to muscle in on the £3.3 billion (US$6.5 billion) takeover of specialist media and exhibitions group Informa, reported the Observer.

The Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) owns stakes in companies such as Emaar Properties, the largest Arab developer by market value, DP World, and Dubai Financial Market , whose parent firm Borse Dubai and the Nasdaq Stock Market bought Nordic exchange operator OMX for US$4.9 billion.

ICD would seek to raise US$6 billion in a syndicated loan this week or so, according to bankers, for a raft of investments that could include joining American private equity firm Blackstone and others to buy Informa.

You can read more here

So... by end of 2009 may we see Informa, RBI and maybe even Lexis Nexis all controlled by private equity. It doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility.