Online retailer THG Plc is in talks to buy City AM, a free London newspaper distributed to the city’s financial sector workers.
(Bloomberg) — Online retailer THG Plc is in talks to buy City AM, a free London newspaper distributed to the city’s financial sector workers.
THG emerged on Wednesday morning as a surprising candidate to buy the business which was put up for sale earlier this month.
City AM was on the verge of appointing administrators this week with view to a pre-pack sale, according to a person familiar with the situation.
“A lot of senior THG management are City AM readers,” the newspaper’s co-founder Lawson Muncaster said in an interview. “This is the deal we want to do.”
The prospective acquisition was first reported by Sky News. THG is expecting to pay a figure in the low seven digits, according to people familiar with the situation.
An internal email sent to City AM’s staff, seen by Bloomberg News, said THG has “promised editorial independence” for the publication.
Moulding has criticized the financial media in the past, particularly when complaining about hedge funds and analysts putting out negative coverage of his company and others.
Earlier this year, Moulding wrote a LinkedIn post referring to a “well-oiled media machine trying to undermine the progress we are making.”
THG didn’t respond to a request for comment about how a media outlet that it owned would cover the business and its competitors.
Shares in THG were trading 0.3% higher at 10:15 a.m. in London.
Read More: London Newspaper City AM Puts Itself Up for Sale
The email to City AM’s staff also said there was commercial logic for the deal, as THG “publishes magazines with a monthly circulation of 600,000.”
City AM has a print circulation of more than 67,000 and says it has an online readership between 1.8 million and 2 million per month. The company believes it can generate more revenue from in-person events and online subscription services.
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