Trinity Rejects £800 Million Take-Over Bid For Mirror
Trinity Mirror has received a bid for its flagship tabloid, the Daily Mirror, from a consortium led by multi-millionaire conference organiser Marcus Evans, according to reports this morning.
However, according to The Times, the bid has been rejected despite Evans offering between £700-800 million for Britain’s third-best selling daily.
A spokesman for Trinity Mirror said that the company was not in any talks regarding the sale of any of its national newspaper titles.
Rumours about a possible take-over bid for Trinity first began circulating at the end of 2004, with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners reported to be in the early stages of an offer, following in the footsteps of an earlier proposition from Candover Investments.
However, Trinity’s strong share price made the deal look unlikely. The publisher’s financial position is cited by The Times as one of the reasons why the recent offer was rejected, claiming that an £800 million offer is unlikely to succeed, considering the Mirrorearned £66.4 million in operating profit last year.
Trinity enjoyed a strong start to 2005, with advertising revenues for the first four months rising by 2.3% year on year.
However, the company announced today that, since its AGM statement in May, the advertising market has remained challenging, with group advertising revenues for the 26 weeks ending the 3rd July expected to fall by 0.4% year on year.
Trinity’s regional division is expected to achieve advertising revenue growth of 1.4% year on year, despite advertising revenues for the nationals sector predicted to fall by 5.3% for the same period. The dip reflects a 7% decline in revenues for Trinity’s English titles and a 0.3% drop in its Scottish titles.
Elsewhere, group circulation revenues for the period are forecast to rise by 3.1% year on year, with all newspaper divisions expected to achieve growth.
The group remains optimistic, despite the advertising market remaining ‘extremely challenging’, expecting a ‘satisfactory’ outcome for the year.
Trinity Mirror: 020 7293 3000www.trinitymirror.com