Newspaper reports major media firms in merger talks

LONDON (Reuters) - Two of Britain's biggest media companies, United Business Media (UBM.L) and Informa, are in merger talks that would create a 3 billion pound business information empire, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper said.

It said the approach came from UBM, with a market capitalisation of 1.5 billion pounds to Informa, which has a market capitalisation of 1.6 billion. Talks were at a very early stage.

The newspaper said the companies could make an announcement on the Stock Exchange as early as Monday morning.

It said a merger would create considerable cost synergies between the two and would be unlikely to run into regulatory problems because of the lack of overlap between them.

The newspaper said Merrill Lynch was advising UBM while Informa has taken on Greenhill. It said neither company had been willing to comment as it went to press.

(Reporting by Jeremy Lovell; editing by Mary Gabriel)