Mecom eyes sale of German newspaper business -report
FRANKFURT, Dec 26 (Reuters) - British-based European publisher Mecom Group (MEC.L) is looking into the disposal of its German newspaper business, German magazine Kress reported on its website on Friday.
Germany's fourth largest newspaper publisher M. DuMont Schauberg (MDS), which owns Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger and Express, was interested in acquiring Mecom's assets Berliner Verlag and Hamburger Morgenpost, Kress said without citing sources.
MDS, which tried to buy Berliner Verlag in 2005, would be willing to pay just below 200 million euros ($279.7 million), Kress said.
German WAZ media group was also interested in Berliner Verlag, Kress added.
A Mecom spokesman said: "The company has looked at making selective strategic disposals but there's nothing to report at this stage."
MDS and WAZ were not immediately available for comment.
Mecom is primarily engaged in buying and operating regional publishing businesses in Europe. It owns newspapers in Norway, Denmark, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands, with its stable of around 300 titles spanning daily, weekly and free publications.
It is currently struggling with challenging trading conditions and this week became Europe's first newspaper publisher to persuade lenders to relax its debt covenants.
Mecom won a two-month delay for a covenant test due at end-December at the price of 2.5 million euros and a 175 basis-point rise in its core lending margin.
Its shares are now worth less than a penny, giving it a market value of 12.7 million pounds ($18.73 million). Net debt was 587 million pounds at end-June.
Mecom cautioned in October that year underlying earnings would be about 10 percent below analyst forecasts, due to a slowdown in advertising as a result of the financial crisis.
It said at the time that it had received a number of expressions of interest for various assets, but there was no certainty they would lead to disposals.
(Reporting by Eva Kuehnen, Joern Poltz and Matthew Scuffham in London; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
