DMGT close to agreeing £400m pensions deal

The owner of the Daily Mail and i newspapers first announced in July that Rothermere Continuation (RCL), which owns around 30% of the listed firm, had indicated it was prepared to make a cash offer of 251p per share, implying an enterprise value of around £810m.

Three pre-conditions had to be met before RCL would make a firm bid, however.

Two have since been met. DMGT’s insurance risk division RMS was sold to Moody’s Corporation for £1.4bn, and online car seller Cazoo was successfully listed, with DMGT’s stake distributed to shareholders.

The remaining pre-condition concerned the media group’s pension schemes. But on Tuesday DMGT said it and RCL were "close to agreeing" a deal with the trustees, which would see it pay around £400m into the three schemes.

Should the trustees agree, RCL will then be clear to table its offer. Following an extension granted last month by the Takeover Panel, RCL has until 25 November to either make an offer or walk away.

Jersey-registered RCL is the holding company of DMGT’s executive chair Jonathan Harmsworth, the viscount Rothermere, who inherited his role on the board and position as controlling shareholder following the death of his father in 1998.

Lord Rothermere controls all of the issued voting shares, which means any deal he backs and is recommended to shareholders will be approved.

As at 1130 GMT, shares in DMGT - which have traded on the London Stock Exchange since the 1930s - were ahead 4% at 1,096.0p.