Kelvin MacKenzie’s bid for Talk Radio has emerged as the clear leader in the battle to take control of the 62.3% stake in the station that has been put up for sale by its holders CLT-ufa (see Talk Radio Sale).
CLT-ufa has received two bids, one from MacKenzie’s consortium (which is backed by News International and MVI, owners of the remaining 38% stake in Talk), and one from the management team at Talk (led by managing director Paul Robinson and backed financially by United News & Media and the Guardian Media Group (see Talk Management Has Guardian And UNM Backing)).
Both bids were originally believed to be valued around the £20 million mark; MacKenzie, however, has since raised his bid to around £25 million, a seven times mark-up on the station’s sales of £3.7 million for the year ended December 1997.
On Friday the Talk MBO was given the opportunity to raise its bid. At a meeting yesterday, the group decided not to do so. This effectively removes the Talk management from the running unless MacKenzie’s proposals should fall through. In this event the MBO team could continue with its offer.
It is not known when CLT-ufa will make an announcement regarding Kelvin MacKenzie’s bid.
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