Media In The City: Emap Shareholders Approve Bauer Sale

Last week saw Emap shareholders approve the sale of the group’s consumer magazine and radio operation to H Bauer for £1.14 billion.

Friday’s general meeting saw separate votes held on the consumer magazine and radio deals, with 97.75% of the votes cast in each case in favour of agreeing the terms of sale (Full Story).

Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times, revealed that it expects record profits for 2007, with good sales growth and margin improvement in its businesses (Full Story).

In its largest business, education, Pearson said that it continued to perform very well competitively and will report its strongest year ever.

Meanwhile, reports in the trade press linked UTV with a potential bid for Virgin Radio, owned by Scottish Media Group (SMG).

It is understood that the investment bank Jeffries International, which is advising SMG on the sale, has sent information on Virgin Radio to prospective buyers (Full Story).

Reports have linked GMG Radio, Global Radio and Vitruvian, the private equity firm which last year teamed up with former Chrysalis Radio boss Phil Riley to bid for Emap’s radio division (Full Story).

In other news, Aegis acquired CIMA Group, a multi-country market research group based in Latin America (Full Story).

Robert Lerwill, CEO of Aegis, said: “CIMA Group will transform Synovate’s Latin America footprint in one go. It will give Synovate full coverage across all key territories and the opportunity to become a major player in a fast-growing region.

“This is an attractive business with a like-minded management team in a high-growth market. It will also support Synovate’s ambition to expand operational capacity in low cost centres.”

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