A LOW-PROFILE, multi-millionaire conference organiser tried to seize control of the Daily Mirror with a bid of between £700 million and £800 million.
Marcus Evans, who owns a conference, training and hospitality group that bears his name, approached Trinity Mirror, the publisher of the tabloid, last night leading a consortium hoping to win control.
The offer, however, is understood to have been brushed aside. A bid of £800 million is unlikely to have impressed Trinity Mirror, given that the red-top earned £66.4 million in operating profit last year.
In comparison, the Telegraph titles were sold last year to the Barclay brothers, Sir David and Sir Frederick, for £665 million. At that time, operating profits at the right-of-centre broadsheet were £35 million.
The Marcus Evans group claims to employ 2,000 people in 34 offices around the world, with annual revenues in excess of $350 million. Mr Evans has grown the business without attracting any coverage, and he does not give interviews.
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The Briton controls the company that bears his name offshore, through a Bermuda-based holding company of which he owns the “entire issued share capital”. It is impossible to verify any claim about the level of revenues.
Discussions between Mr Evans and Trinity Mirror are not thought to have resumed since. Last night a spokesman for Trinity Mirror said: “There are no discussions or negotiations regarding the sale of any of our national newspaper titles.”
Although the Daily Mirror has been in circulation decline, the newspaper remains the third best-selling daily in Britain with sales of 1.7 million. The decline, helped by the paper’s hostility to the Iraq war under the editorship of the now-departed Piers Morgan, has halted.
Trinity Mirror has had a string of approaches for one its national newspapers in recent years, but the company has rejected all, arguing, that, in each case, they have failed to match up to the board’s projections. Bidders also have to overcome the fact that Sir Victor Blank, the company’s chairman, is extremely reluctant to consider outside bidders.
In March of this year, Trinity Mirror received a bid of £210 million for the Racing Post headed by Robin Cook, the former Foreign Secretary, who is also a racing buff. That bid was backed by the venture capitalists Warburg Pincus.
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Candover Investments, the venture capital group, also tried to buy the Mirror in early 2003, with a bid thought to be about £500 million. That was rejected, as was an earlier bid for the whole company by Candover with Apax Partners for 450p a share.
But since Sly Bailey was appointed chief executive in February 2003, the shares have shot up on the back of improved profitability. She arrived when the share price was below 400p; the shares closed at 626½p yesterday.