Trinity Mirror in talks to buy regional publisher Local World

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.

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