Irish investors set to buy Racing Post

A GROUP of Irish investors is reported to be favourites to buy the Racing Post newspaper.

Former IBI chief executive Peter Crowley is head of FL Partners, which the Daily Telegraph said yesterday is one of two bidders left to win thetitle.

The Racing Post was put up for sale by its owners, newspaper group Trinity Mirror, earlier this year and could cost a new owner €280 million.

Mr Crowley, who left IBI last year, formed FL Partners (also called Festina Lente, the Latin for make haste slowly) with Neill Hughes, another former IBI executive. Last week they acquired bedding firm Kayfoam Woolfson for €60m.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the FL Partners bid is also backed by former Racing Post editor Alan Byrne. Mr Byrne once worked for Godolphin, the stable owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Sheikh Mohammed is the original founder of the Racing Post. He sold Trinity Mirror the rights to print the Racing Post in 1993 for just £1.

He sold the title on condition that it carries racing news on its front page every day.

The bidding war for the paper was shortened to three last month: FL Partners, investment bank Goldman Sachs and private equity firms Veronis Suhler Stevenson and Exponent.

It was reported that Veronis Suhler Stevenson and Exponent have been eliminated from the bidding war and that the Irish firm is firm favourite to buy the paper.

The Racing Post is considered a smart gamble as it faces no serious daily competition for advertising by bookmakers.