Evans may launch £800m Mirror takeover

ADVERTISING revenues are plunging at The Daily Mirror. It admitted the slump just as it emerged conference and hospitality multimillionaire Marcus Evans is heading a consortium that could be about to launch a takeover for the tabloid, valuing it at up to £800m.

The paper's parent group Trinity Mirror today revealed figures showing a disastrous two months for the tabloid since it updated shareholders with an upbeat statement in early May.

Trinity Mirror today said year-on-year ad revenue from its national titles had fallen 7% in the 26 weeks to the end of this week.

That compares with an annualised fall of 3.9% reported for the first four months of the year, suggesting the Mirror's ad market has collapsed since the general election in early May.

The fall at the Mirror titles has brought its parent group back to earth with a bump after previously bullish trading reports.

Trinity Mirror had reported group ad revenue in the first two months of 2005 up 6.5%. A decline to growth rates of 1.4% in March and April brought the annualised increase back to 2.3%.

Today, the group admitted a May-June slump means that, year-on-year, it is now in decline with group ad revenue running 0.4% weaker. It blamed the 'challenging' ads market on 'an uncertain economic climate.'

Investors in Trinity Mirror have already been reading the runes, the shares slumping more than 10% in recent weeks. But the stock was 3p higher at 629½p today as it emerged that the consortium headed by Evans could table a bid valuing the Mirror titles at between £700m and £800m.

An indication of that bid is believed not to have impressed Trinity Mirror executives, led by chief executive Sly Bailey.

The group today rejected any suggestion the Mirror is coming under siege. 'There are no discussions or negotiations regarding the sale of any of our newspaper titles,' said a spokesman.

Two years ago, venture capitalist Candover Investments tabled a £500m offer for the titles. That followed a bid for the whole group by Candover and private equity partner Apax valuing Trinity Mirror at 450p.

This spring, Trinity Mirror got an abortive offer for the Racing Post from a consortium led by former Cabinet minister Robin Cook.

Millions built on tennis

THERE is a certain irony in the emergence of Marcus Evans as a bidder for the Daily Mirror during the Wimbledon championships.

The annual champagne-and-strawberries jamboree is what made 41-year-old Evans his first millions, selling pricey corporate hospitality to the City's merchant bankers in the 1980s.

From there he has built one of the world's leading and still privately-owned conference companies employing 2000 people in 31 countries. His West End-based company produces, it says, 'global summits, strategic business conferences, congresses and corporate marketing events'.