The proposed sale of Chrysalis Radio has been announced this morning. A new investment company, Global Radio, is set to take over Heart, LBC and Galaxy for £170m. The news follows much industry speculation, after a strategic review was announced in February.
Estimated return of capital to Shareholders of between £90 million and £100 million, representing approximately 54 pence to 60 pence per share before tax. The sole business activity of the company following the disposal will be Chrysalis Music.
Global Radio is chaired by former ITV chief executive Charles Allen. Chrysalis chief executive Richard Huntingford is to stand down later this year once the deal has been finalised. Chrysalis Radio chief executive Phil Riley is thought to be staying on in a new role.
Commenting on the proposed disposal, Huntingford said: 'We believe that the sale of Chrysalis Radio as a complete entity meets the objectives of our strategic review of facilitating its participation in the longer term development of UK commercial radio and deriving good value for shareholders. This has been a thorough review process which has delivered a good result.'
Chrysalis Chairman, Chris Wright commented: 'Chrysalis Music is well placed to build upon and exploit its position as a leading international, independent music business. It operates in a growing market and has valuable positions within it. As with Chrysalis Radio, we will continue to monitor the performance and positioning of this business, for the benefit of all stakeholders.'
Chrysalis owns and operates Digital stations The Arrow and Heart Digital – along with Galaxy Radio stations Manchester, Birmingham, Yorkshire and the north east, Heart stations in east midlands, west midlands and London, and LBC 97.3 and LBC News 1152 in London.
Posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 6:15 am by RadioToday UK