Sharewatch: Daily Mail Dips On Bid For Telegraph Titles
Daily Mail & General Trust was seen in focus yesterday dipping 0.80% on news that it has teamed up with private equity firm Cinven to bid in excess of £550 million for the Telegraph titles as Hollinger International seeks to break itself up.
Traders fear Lord Rothermere’s newspaper group could become involved in a costly bidding war with Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers, which has also tabled an indicative bid for the titles (see Desmond Mounts Two Pronged Attack On Telegraph Titles).
BSkyB was also seen in the spotlight yesterday dipping by 1.10% to close at 767˝p, despite investors welcoming a significant rise in interim net profits and plans to resume dividend payments for the first time in five years.(see BSkyB’s Good Run Continues With First Half Results)
Traders continued to move on Reuters, which reached an eighteen-month high earlier this week ahead of what is expected to be a strong set of results next week. Shares rose by 1.45% to close at 351p.
London blue chips dipped yesterday on poorly received results from Barclays and GlaxoSmith Kline. The FTSE 100 closed 0.4% lower at 4,377.7, but the more cyclical FTSE 250 rose by 0.6% to close at 6,171, its highest level since May 2002.
The closing prices of media company shares on Thursday were:
