Germans back in chase for Hollinger

GERMAN media giant Axel Springer is mulling a £1bn bid for Hollinger International, the embattled company that owns the Daily Telegraph.

The e28bn (£18.3bn) company's interest in bagging the beleaguered publisher was thought to have cooled as the bidding war heated up but is now said to be 'seriously' back in the running with a restructured offer.

Bidders for the whole of Hollinger, rather than for individual assets such as the Telegraph, may be favoured because selling off individual assets could incur more tax.

Lazards is handling a contested auction for Hollinger and its assets. Initial bids for the group, formerly controlled by Lord Black, started at £600m.

Axel Springer considered buying the Daily Mirror five years ago and is hungry to expand outside its domestic market. It emerged last week that the publisher of Germany's most widely-read newspaper, Bild, had teamed up with billionaire Haim Saban to bid for Hollinger.

Chief executive Mathias Doepfner said at the Springer annual general meeting today: 'Springer is healthy, Springer is aggressive and Springer is on the right track.' Doepfner has said he wants to benefit from the group's rising share price, which has doubled over the past year, to finance acquisitions and expand abroad.

The prospect of the company owning the Telegraph group would have to spark a dramatic culture change at the fiercely Eurosceptic Telegraph. Springer's papers are pro-European with an editorial principle of 'furthering the unification of Europe'.

The company is one of the most influential in Germany. Formed after the Second World War, it has a portfolio of 180 national and regional newspapers. Bild, its flagship title, has no competition.

Springer is also one of Germany's leading book publishers, owning 15 commercial printing plants for both company and third-party use, and has investments in online bookseller Booxtra and television production company Schwartzkopff TV. The family of the late founder owns about 55% of the company.