Guardian rejects £100m Chrysalis bid

THE Guardian Media Group, the parent company of the national newspaper, has rejected an offer for its radio assets from Chrysalis, the listed radio and music publishing group, reports the Sunday Telegraph.

Chrysalis is understood to have offered just over £100m for the Guardian's radio stations, which include Jazz FM and a handful of regional stations. The bid was turned down on the grounds that it substantially underestimated the value of these assets, according to the newspaper.

The disclosure comes as Schroders, the leading fund manger, is piling pressure on Chrysalis to improve its financial performance by increasing its stake in the media group to almost 24%. Schroders' acquisition of shares, which continued last week, will prompt heightened speculation that Chrysalis could be broken up or taken over.

Little-noticed filings revealed that Schroders increased its stake in the company to 21.5% on Wednesday, then raised it again to 23.7% on Thursday.

Schroders may raise its shareholding further, giving it a greater stake than Chris Wright, the chairman and co-founder of Chrysalis who has built the group up over the past 37 years, and who has a 26% stake.

Chrysalis has two major divisions, its radio stations including the Heart, Galaxy and LBC stations, and its music publishing business. One shareholder estimated that a sale of the music publishing business could raise about £200m for the company, which has a market capitalisation of £301m.