Marcus Evans, the multimillionaire conference organiser, is ready to bid for the Daily Mirror, but only if its current owners accept £200 million less than he offered two years ago, The Times has learnt.
The low-profile Mr Evans, who made an unsuccessful attempt to buy the tabloid in 2004, is willing to offer about £550 million to £600 million — far less than the £700 million to £800 million last time.
It is understood that Mr Evans has registered an interest with NM Rothschild, the bankers advising Trinity Mirror on a review of the newspaper group’s strategy that is widely expected to lead to a disposal or break-up.
Trinity Mirror is expected to present the conclusions of a six-month review in December. That could lead to a sale of the Mirror and the company’s other national newspapers.
Mr Evans, 43, runs a conference and hospitality group that bears his name. He does not give interviews and details about his private life and politics are sketchy. It is not clear how wealthy he is because most of his businesses are held offshore.
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His interest in the Mirror and its Sunday sister title is understood to be motivated by the belief that the struggling tabloid is an attractive business proposition, which would be better off in private hands, although insiders emphasise that “he would not want to buy the Mirror to wreck it”.
However, the suggested purchase price is unlikely to impress Trinity Mirror, and may not even be enough to tempt the company to auction the tabloid and its sister titles. It is not clear if Mr Evans is willing to take on the Scottish Record titles and the Sunday People, which form part of the group’s national newspaper division.
The last national newspapers to change hands were The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, which were acquired by the Barclay brothers for £665 million in 2004 at a time when the broadsheet was expected to make about £35 million annually. Since then, newspaper valuations have fallen — Trinity’s own share price is down 30 per cent over the past two years as the company has struggled in the face of a severe downturn in advertising. The Mirror, People and Record titles generated £37.4 million in operating profit during the first six months of 2006, down 12.8 per cent on last year.
Under Richard Wallace’s editorship, the Daily Mirror has generated a series of high-profile scoops, including the exposure of cocaine use by Kate Moss, but this has had little impact on circulation. Headline sales dipped to to 1.6 million in October, down 5 per cent on the year.
Trinity Mirror shareholders have told the company that they anticipate some changes in the group’s structure, although they are happy to leave the detail to Sly Bailey, chief executive. Other ideas mooted include a splitting the group in two, separating out its regional and national divisions, as well as sales of the regional titles and the Racing Post, Britain’s only horse racing title.
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Several private equity groups, including Candover and Apax, are thought to have registered interest with Trinity Mirror, although their focus is on the regional arm, which have long been favoured by private equity.
Trinity Mirror shares eased 8½p to 493½p yesterday, valuing the entire company at £1.44 billion.
The arrival of Sir Ian Gibson as chairman this summer, replacing the long serving Sir Victor Blank, gave rise to hopes that the newspaper group might consider a sale of its best known titles. Sir Ian, a car industry veteran who headed Nissan in Europe, has no media experience, although his daughter is a journalist on The Guardian.
By contrast, Sir Victor was widely felt to be attached to the Mirror, a feeling cultivated by former Editor Piers Morgan who ensured that the company chairman was a regular at the newspaper lunches.
Marcus Evans