News stories about potential and agreed mergers and acquisitions in the UK commercial radio broadcasting sector concerning The Wireless Group plc, Scottish Media Group plc's 'Virgin Radio', Capital Radio plc and GWR Group plc, written by Grant Goddard in March 2005 for The Radio Magazine.

1. NEWS: UK COMMERCIAL RADIO
M&A UPDATE: THE WIRELESS
GROUP, VIRGIN RADIO, CAPITAL
RADIO, GWR GROUP
by
GRANT GODDARD
www.grantgoddard.co.uk
March 2005

2. News: UK Commercial Radio M&A Update: The Wireless Group, Virgin Radio, Capital Radio, GWR Group Page 1
©2005 Grant Goddard
The Wireless Group plc [TWG]. Former TWG managing director Jonnie
Goodwin is reported to be assisting TWG chief executive Kelvin MacKenzie
with securing new backers for a reworked management buyout offer. Goodwin
now runs corporate finance house LongAcre Partners. As instructed by the
TWG board, Goldman Sachs has sent information packs to potential bidders
for the company. Analysts have valued TWG’s 16 local radio licences at £75m,
while MacKenzie’s initial 90p per share bid valued the whole group (local
licences plus TalkSport) at £100m.
'Virgin Radio'. Lord Ali is hoping that the release of Virgin owner Scottish
Media Group's [SMG] full-year results today [Thursday] will encourage
shareholders to back his £100m bid. Analysts expect the accounts to show
that Virgin made £5m profit last year, compared to £10m two years ago, a
declining performance that might persuade SMG shareholders that Lord Ali’s
offer is pitched at a realistic level. An unnamed source close to Lord Ali said:
"We still believe it is a full offer. There has been no suggestion of raising the
offer. It is just not on the agenda. All eyes are now on SMG’s results. The
shareholders are waiting for those before they make a judgment on the
proposals. The ball is very much in SMG’s court now." Chrysalis Radio is
thought to be preparing a counter bid for Virgin, but its own analysis values the
station at between £85m and £90m.
Capital Radio plc & GWR Group plc. With the full merger scheduled to be
complete by early May 2005, Capital Radio has been making redundancies at
its Leicester Square headquarters. This follows the departure in January of
Capital’s strategy and development director, Nathalie Schwarz, who is thought
not to have been offered a place on the newly merged board. Last October,
even before the merger had been approved, Capital’s national commercial
managing director Linda Grant lost her job to Duncan George, managing
director of GWR’s sales operation Opus; and Capital’s finance director Peter
Harris lost his job to his GWR counterpart, Wendy Pallot.
[First published in 'The Radio Magazine' as 'Mergers And Acquisitions Update', #674, 9 March 2005]
Grant Goddard is a media analyst / radio specialist / radio consultant with thirty years of
experience in the broadcasting industry, having held senior management and consultancy
roles within the commercial media sector in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Details at
http://www.grantgoddard.co.uk