Buyers line up for United titles
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Your support makes all the difference.United News & Media, Lord Hollick's media company, has received as many as 20 expressions of interest for its 47 southern regional newspaper titles, worth about pounds 60m, it emerged yesterday.
The "significant" level of interest had exceeded expectations, Lord Hollick, the Labour peer, said as he unveiled the company's first set of results since the controversial merger of MAI and Lord Stevens' United Newspapers in April.
UNM is now putting together an information memorandum, to be sent to all registered potential buyers. Of these, both Tony O'Reilly's Independent Newspapers and Trinity, the regional newspaper company, are expected to lead the pack.
Pre-tax profits at UNM climbed 21.5 per cent to pounds 151.9m in the six months to June, on a pro-forma basis, reflecting the effects of the merger. The star performers were business services and broadcasting, taking in the ITV franchises Anglia Television and Meridian. Turnover rose 10 per cent to pounds 1.04bn.
Lord Hollick said the results showed "significant progress" in integrating the television and newspaper companies. He expected to identify further opportunities for cross promotion between the newspaper titles, including the Express and United Provincial Newspapers, and the group's commercial television operations.
Lord Hollick said it was too early to judge the effects of a restructuring of the Daily and Sunday Express titles, which are to be merged into a seven-day operation. "The titles have been starved of investment," he said, adding that the new structure would allow the editorial product to be enhanced, but at the cost of 85 jobs.
In the future, Lord Hollick said, the group would concentrate on being market leaders in key sectors, including the lucrative consumer publishing and business services operations in the US, as well as broadcasting and television and film production. He expected a pounds 225m joint venture theme park, being developed with US giant Time Warner, to open toward the end of next year, subject to planning approval.
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