Rothermere family plan to take Daily Mail private in €928m deal 

The 'Daily Mail' has weathered the long-term decline in newspaper sales better than rivals, overtaking Rupert Murdoch's 'The Sun' to become the UK's top-selling newspaper last year. 

The founding family and leading investor in the publisher of Britain's Daily Mail newspaper is considering taking the group private in a $1.1bn (€928m) deal as part of a break-up of the business.

The Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said the Rothermeres, who own 28% of the company, are ready to make a cash offer to buy the group outright, provided it sells its RMS insurance risk business and that the listing of online car seller Cazoo, which it partially owns, goes ahead. 

The Daily Mail was first published in 1896 by the ancestors of current DMGT chairman Jonathan Harmsworth, the viscount Rothermere.

The Mail has weathered the long-term decline in newspaper sales better than rivals, overtaking Rupert Murdoch's The Sun to become the UK's top-selling newspaper last year. 

The group's website — MailOnline — is among the most visited English-language news sites globally thanks to its celebrity focused formula.

DMGT said it intended to distribute the proceeds of a sale of RMS along with its cash and its stake in a listed Cazoo via a special dividend. 

Contingent on the transactions, the Rothermeres would be prepared to offer 251 pence for each DMGT share, DMGT said. 

Without its interests in Cazoo and RMS, DMGT would comprise news publishing and its events and property information businesses.

Analysts at Berenberg said the approximate value of the terms implied a value per share of 1,261 pence, a 21% premium on Friday's closing price.

"The premium doesn't represent a knock out offer, but given the Rothermere holding company already controls the group, there aren't really other alternatives, and versus the share price of DMGT earlier in the year, it's obviously very significant upside," Berenberg analysts said.

"Its unlikely, therefore, that we will see a much more generous offer appear from elsewhere." 

• Reuters