Guardian Media Group considers bid for Emap assets

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 02-Aug-07, 08:55

LONDON - Guardian Media Group, publisher of The Guardian and The Observer, is considering bidding for parts of media group Emap as a way of investing the £674m it made from selling off a minority stake in its Trader Media business.

Carolyn McCall, GMG chief executive, said it is looking at buying parts of Emap, which owns magazine and radio brands such as FHM, Heat and Magic, but would not buy the whole company.

Emap announced last Friday it was undertaking a review of its portfolio of assets and considering a possible sale or demerger of some or all of its businesses after it had received various unsolicited proposals for parts of the group.

McCall said the group is keeping an "open mind" about which assets to target in the UK media sector but would like to diversify its businesses, which she said are completely oriented to the UK economy and are all advertising-driven.

She said: "It is unlikely we will invest in a sizeable acquisition in an area where we already are", adding that business-to-business media was one of several interesting areas.

This would rule out a bid for Emap's radio division because GMG already owns around 13 stations in the UK.

She said the group had sizeable cash reserves after the sale of a 49.9% stake of its Trader Media division for £674m to private equity firm Apax Partners earlier this year.

Yesterday, GMG announced its pre-tax profit for the last financial year was £97.7m, up from £66.4m in 2006.