By: Mark Fitzgerald Hollinger International said today it is giving up for now on selling the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago cluster of dailies and weeklies.
In a statement, the company said the Corporate Review Committee of its board instructed Lazard, the investment bank running the sale of its properties, to focus its efforts on the Daily Telegraph in London.
Also being taken off the block is the Jerusalem Post, the financially troubled but influential English-language Israeli daily.
"The Company has been undertaking an extensive process to evaluate a wide range of strategic alternatives to maximize value for our shareholders. Based on this effort, the Corporate Review Committee has decided that, at this point in time, the focus of the Strategic Process should be the potential sale of the (United Kingdom) assets, said Gordon Paris, Hollinger International's interim chairman and CEO. "As previously noted, however, the Company is not compelled to complete a transaction and will only do so on terms which are in the best interests of our shareholders," he added.
Originally, the company hoped to get as much as $1 billion for the Chicago cluster, which includes not only the Sun-Times, but two suburban dailies, the Daily Southtown in Tinley Park and the Naperville Sun, as well as three well-regarded groups of neighborhood and suburban weeklies.
But as the May 20 deadline passed, several prospective bidders either dropped out or declined to make an offer. The only two bids are said to come from a partnership of Yusef Jackson, a son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, with supermarket mogul Ron Burkle, and a joint venture between Citigroup and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.
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