Suitors Line Up For Trinity’s Irish Titles

The list of bidders for Trinity Mirror’s Irish newspapers has been reduced to four, with Independent News & Media sidelined, according to press reports today.

Last month, IN&M made an offer for eight of the titles, which were put up for sale in July. The publishing group had the backing of private equity firm Provident Capital but chose not to bid for the Belfast News Letter on the basis that it was unlikely to get regulatory clearance for the acquisition.

Independent News already owns the Belfast Telegraph, the biggest selling newspaper in Northern Ireland, and Trinity has only approved bids that include all nine titles.

The Guardian states that three of the four approved bidders have venture capital support. Simon Robinson, former managing director of the Mirror Group’s Northern Ireland titles, has joined forces with Kleinwort Development Capital while former Mirror chief David Montgomery has enlisted the backing of 3i.

As expected, David Palmer the former group chief executive of the Financial Times has made a joint offer with HgCapital and the other bidder is Archant, the East Anglia based regional publisher.

Trinity is reported as being keen to receive final offers by October 17. As well as the News Letter, the portfolio includes the Derry Journal and the Donegal Democrat.

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