Heart Media acquired

Singapore-based publisher Heart Media Group, which publishes magazines such as Men's Folio, FORM and World of Watches has been acquired.The acquirer is a new media holding group called Heart Media Holding, led by Olivier Burlot and Julian Peh.Burlot previously launched car and female titles for Hachette Filipacchi in China, headed the Taiwan edition of fashion title ELLE and also co-founded Adkom Media Group in 2001, which was later sold to SPH.He will run the new group as its CEO and publisher.Peh is the group CEO and founder of WhiteWave Media Group, a separate luxury media company.Peh told Marketing that the new owners now had full ownership of Heart Media Group's business, while its founder Eddy Koh would retain a minority stake in the company. The deal was completed yesterday, he added.Heart Media Holdings will now have Heart Media's entire business, including the latter's Malaysian and Indonesian entities, encompassing its stable of magazines which include World of Watches (WOW), Men's FOLIO, FORM (Singapore) and ROOM (Malaysia) as well as its digital properties.The titles are published and circulated in Singapore, Malaysia and across major cities in Asia.More editions of both titles will be added across the region over the next 24 months, said a statement from the new company.Burlot said: "Heart Media is a trusted and long-established brand in the luxury media market. Over the past 16 years, Eddy Koh and his team have built magazine titles which are read and loved by some of the most sophisticated readers in Asia."WhiteWave Media will also become a strategic partner to the new company, said Peh. WhiteWave specialises in digital luxury media and pushing publications in the digital space. It owns websites such as Luxury-insider.com as well.Earlier last year, it acquired regional news publication Asia360.As a results of the partnership the new company will push Heart Media Group's publications onto web and mobile, Peh added.Eddy Koh, founder of Heart Media Group said: "I am thrilled to see the company being brought to new heights. The new management team will definitely create exciting and excellent growth for the titles and let us offer even more to our readers, advertisers and business partners."