Emap Radio may be sold off piecemeal

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey , Media Week 20-Nov-07, 10:00

LONDON - Emap Radio could be sold off piecemeal, with some radio brands sold to the buyers of accompanying magazine or television brands to speed up the sale process, according to City analysts.

The radio division is known to have attracted significant interest from Global Radio and GCap, but competition issues that would arise from a trade sale could delay finalising the deal by as much as six months.

A number of private equity bids led by former Chrysalis chief executive Phil Riley and Tim Schoonmaker, ex-chief executive of Emap Performance, are also on the table.

The Global bid remains favourite, but would create questions of monopoly, both in the regions and in London, as Magic and Heart cover the same total survey area and target audience.
Meanwhile, the City is predicting that the new owners of licences such as Heat Radio will either sell the station back to the owners of the parent print brand or ditch them and use the spectrum for a different station.
Paul Bates, media analyst at Charles Stanley Securities, questioned the strength of the Heat Radio brand.
Bates said: “People have to decide to what extent the Heat brand has value in radio and, if so, what they’re prepared to pay for the brand. In most of these cases there is more value in the spectrum than the brand.”