The parent company of the Daily Mirror is in talks to buy David Montgomery’s regional newspaper group Local World for about £200m.
Trinity Mirror, owner of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, is understood to be in talks with the shareholders in Local World.
Local World, a merger of more than 100 titles from Daily Mail & General Trust’s Northcliffe Media and Iliffe News & Media – including the Nottingham Post and Cambridge News – made profits of almost £40m in 2013, according to the most recent publicly available financial results.
Trinity Mirror paid £14m in 2012 to acquire a 19.98% stake in Local World, while Daily Mail owner DMGT holds 38.73%. Illiffe holds a 22.3% stake. Local World is also backed by Crispin Odey’s Odey Asset Management and Artefact Group.
Local World is run by David Montgomery, the ex-Trinity Mirror and Mecom chief, who also holds a stake in the business.
Trinity Mirror – which is also in talks with Richard Desmond about potentially buying Express Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday – is said to be in talks with all of Local World’s partners about taking complete control.
If a deal is struck, it will make Trinity Mirror a regional newspaper powerhouse, the company already owns 130 regional titles, including the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo.
Trinity Mirror and Local World declined to comment on the talks.