Hazlitt to leave merged GCap, Global

by Tristan O'Carroll Media Week 22-May-08, 11:50

LONDON - Fru Hazlitt, the GCap Media chief executive, is to step down from the radio company when its acquisition by Global Radio is finalised.

GCap Media announced that after the expected completion of its acquisition by Global Radio on 6 June, it has been agreed with the Office of Fair Trading that the assets of the two companies should be held separate while a regulatory review is completed.

Consequently, Ashley Tabor, Global chief executive, and Charles Allen, its chairman, are to step down temporarily from Global in order to take on the same roles at GCap during the "hold separate" period.

Park and Don Thomson, currently Global chief operating officer, will be Global's acting chief executive and chief operating officer respectively, jointly running the company during this period.

Following completion of the acquisition, it is intended that the current GCap board will be dissolved and chairman Richard Eyre will step down alongside other non-executive directors.

Global's pursuit of GCap began with an offer at 190p a share in December, which was rejected by GCap's board. A second offer at 202p in March was also brushed off. The chase finally came to an end when a 225p offer, valuing the company at £375m, was accepted.

The takeover creates a commercial outfit with nearly half of the UK radio advertising market, combining Global's networks - Heart, Galaxy and LBC - under the same owner as GCap's Classic FM, Capital Radio and Xfm.