Chelverton To Take Over LBC

It has now been confirmed that Chelverton Investments has taken over LBC, following the announcement yesterday that owner, Crown Communications has gone into liquidation (Newsline 28/1).

Chelverton is headed by Sir Leslie Porter, former chief of Tescos and his son John Porter, as well as partner Matthew Cartisser. The deal has been valued at £14m with an initial cash injection of £7m, giving Chelverton 49% of the equity with an option to take up 51%. These transactions should cover almost 80% of Crown’s debt which came to light when the French broadcasting authority refused to allow the sale of RGM, a radio station owned by the Communications company.

Further investment will be made in LBC by its new owners if it retains its franchise when the speech based licence is re-advertised in March.