EMAP snub irks SRH investors

KEY investors in Scottish Radio Holdings are not happy with the group's decision to turn down an approach from magazines and radio group Emap that valued the company at £375m.

Emap owns Kiss FM and Magic, and already holds 27% of SRH, which owns Radio Forth and Radio Clyde and Score Press, a local newspaper group with 44 titles.

Emap said it had offered 1040p a share and that this was rejected by the SRH board, led by chief executive David Goode.

DC Thomson, the Scottish publisher of the Beano, has a 9.7% stake in SRH and has indicated that it supports the management's rejection of Emap. Other shareholders include Legal & General and fund managers Framlington and Morley. However, some major shareholders are less happy with the board's decision to reject the offer. One said : 'We think it should have been shown shareholders like ourselves. There might have been some justification for rejecting it, but we were not given the chance to make our views known.'

Since the approach was revealed, SRH's shares have not reached Emap's offer price, though they ended Friday at 1020p. Emap said in its initial statement that it might make a hostile bid at a lower price, which is likely to have worried investors enough to prevent the share price reaching 1040p.

SRH said: 'We believe we are acting in the best interests of our shareholders and we are in regular dialogue with them.'

Separately this week, a trading statement from local newspaper group Johnston Press, which has been suggested as a possible buyer of SRH's newspapers, is likely to be cautious about advertising prospects.