Granada Bid For LWT Frozen

Granada’s bid for LWT has been frozen while the Office of Fair Trading decides whether to refer the bid for a monopolies investigation.

Granada requested the move, to discover any changes which would have to be made before improving its offer.

Granada says its group will consider selling its 50% stake in The Time Exchange to Scottish Television, in an attempt to reduce its share of the UK television advertising market. Alternatively YTTT may want to pull out of its deal to sell its advertising through LWT’s sales arm; however Yorkshire could demand compensation ofup to £10m to withdraw.

The OFT is expected to report its findings on Thursday; LWT would then have two more days to present any further defence; after that Granada would have an extra week to make a final offer.

It has emerged that the US company that LWT is involved in possible take- over talks with is US West, the Denver based telephone company. The delay in the Granada bid means that LWT has more time to arrange a possible suitor.