Scottish Radio Holdings lays down takeover marker

Scottish Radio Holdings told its biggest shareholder today that any takeover offer must value it at more than £350m (€509.5m).

The group, which has 22 wholly owned radio stations and 45 local weekly newspapers, told Emap that its current share price did not “adequately reflect” its value.

Emap snapped up 27% of its rival in January last year and the City has been expecting it to launch a full takeover bid after the £711m (€1bn) merger of Capital Radio and GWR kick-started the consolidation of the radio industry.

In a statement last night, Emap confirmed it was interested in acquiring SRH because its radio assets would complement its own stations, which include Kiss, Kerrang and Magic.

But the media group stressed it was not prepared to overpay for SRH whose shares have risen nearly 10% since the middle of December on speculation of a bid.

SRH owns radio stations including Ireland’s Today FM, Cool FM in Northern Ireland, Radio Clyde, Radio Borders, Tay FM in Dundee, Carlisle CFM Radio, and Southampton-based Wave 105.

In a statement today, SRH bosses said the future of the company was bright if it stayed independent and it was well-placed to create significant value for its investors.

The board vowed to oppose any offer unless it was in the interests of its shareholders and reflected “the full and fair value of SRH’s growth prospects including a premium for control”.

It added: “For the avoidance of doubt, the board of SRH does not believe that the current share price adequately reflects this value.”

Shares in SRH rose nearly 3% today to £10 on the bid talk, while Emap was unchanged at 830p.