Rothermere Gets Extension to Bid Deadline for Daily Mail & General Trust

By Ian Walker

Daily Mail & General Trust PLC said Monday that the U.K. Takeover Panel has extended the deadline for Rothermere Continuation Ltd. to either make an offer for the media group or walk away.

The new deadline is Sept. 30. It has been extended from Aug. 9 to enable certain preconditions relating to the sale of the company's insurance risk unit and the possible offer to be satisfied.

On July 12, Daily Mail said that its controlling shareholder, Rothermere Continuation was considering a bid for the remaining assets of the group after a possible sale of its insurance-risk division and that it was also in talks regarding the sale of the division.

Rothermere, which owns around 20% of Daily Mail, had indicated that it would offer 251 pence a share in cash, putting an enterprise value of 810 million pounds ($1.12 billion) on the company, including debt.

In the event that the offer becomes unconditional, Daily Mail said it would declare a special dividend comprising cash and its remaining Cazoo shares, and shares in the group would cease to be listed.

Daily Mail said Thursday that it had agreed to sell its insurance risk business RMS to Moody's Corp. for GBP1.43 billion in cash.

Write to Ian Walker at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 09, 2021 03:13 ET (07:13 GMT)

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