Is McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP) working on a bid for Reed Business Information? We had been working on a tip to this effect for the last two months, but at that time, the thought was that MGH was only interested in buying the constructions titles of RBI, for its own construction division. Now Telegraph reports that the parent of BusinessWeek is among two dozen companies that have expressed an interest in acquiring Reed Elsevier’s (NYSE: RUK) trade magazine and information division, which includes titles such as Variety, New Scientist and others. For MGH, if it decides to move froward, this will be a big move into trade magazine and online sector...certainly anyone owning Variety and other RBI media titles will be under intense spotlight, at least from the media trades. As we reported before, RBI’s banker UBS finally came out with the book last week.

Reed, which really wants to see this sale through despite the tight credit markets, is offering to lend around $320 million to the successful bidder. A further $1.2 billion million, which is 3.5 times the division’s underlying earnings of $320 million, will be offered as a loan by a consortium of banks, the story says.

The first round of bids is expected to be completed by mid-August.