The Avanti Group the equities research house based in Tokyo, providing professional trading and investment research solutions to institutional and private investors across the globe have recently drawn their investor’s attention to recent developments within the media sector.

Known most notably for the magazine of the same name, Forbes Media LLC, which began in 1917, has expanded far outside of its traditional and contracting print media business to include holdings in real estate and event management. In this sense, the Forbes brand could conceivably be worth as much as the existing traditional magazine business on which the name was grown.

With much of the company’s potential growth existing in Asian markets, it comes as no surprise that two out of the three main parties seeking to acquire Forbes in a potential $400 million sale are themselves Asian, Singapore’s Spice Global Investments Pvt and Fosun International Ltd of China. The third main contender as the process unfolds is Axel Springer SE, the German publisher of Forbes Russian magazine edition.

“A lot of the true value in the $400 million asking price for Forbes lies not in its publishing which would have to generate earnings around $67 million a year to justify the price being asked, rather than a forecast of $33 million for 2014, so it is the name and more importantly what business that can be done with it that is attracting the interest that we are seeing here,” said Martin Blanke Equity Research Specialist at The Avanti Group.

Forbes already has some experience of using its name as a marketable commodity in both event management and in property development having leased their name to an office tower, Forbes Media Tower in the Philippines and in talks to allow two similar arrangements. Outside of the upfront financial costs, prospective buyer Spice Global has asked that the Forbes family remain responsible for any settlement arising from legal action brought by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, distressed that the magazine had lowered their expectation of his personal wealth, the reason being that Britain caps the amount of damages that can be awarded in such an action.

“Even as the traditional print media market place contracts, a good company can always be evolved as Forbes has already been doing in a rather successful manner. Any new owner will most likely expand upon this as well as incorporating ideas of their own meaning evermore significant changes to his business media standard,” concluded Martin Blanke Equity Research Specialist at The Avanti Group.

The Avanti Group is an equity research house providing research and analysis outsourcing solutions for institutional financial traders worldwide, founded in early 2003.