Increased "Mirror" Bid For Odhams

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 10

Increased "Mirror" Bid For Odhams

(N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, February 18. The “Daily Mirror” group yesterday increased its offer to take over Odhams Press from £32,000,000 to £37,000,000 in a new offensive to gain ccntrol of the £40,000,000 combine. Odham’s directors led by their chairman (Sir Christopher Chancellor) last week advised the 15,000 shareholders to reject the first “Mirror” offer. They pointed to the concentration of ownership a takeover would mean in the newspaper and magazine fields, and promised to raise their dividend for 1960 as a counter attraction. The Odhams board also claimed advantages for their proposed merger with the £27,000,000 group headed by the Canadian millionaire, Mr R. Thomson. The latest offer by Mr Cecil King’s “Mirror” group values each of the 12,000,000 shares at 63s 4d against yesterday’s closing market price of about 525. First Offer The first “Mirror” offer was for nine “Mirror” ordinary shares for every two Odhams.

The latest is five to one, plus 5s a share. At stake in the battle are Odham’s two national newspapers, the “Daily Herald” and the “People,” 150 magazines and numerous books. The “Daily Mirror” group, a £50,000,000 empire, publishes 130 newspapers and magazines and 200 annuals. Financial circles in the city had speculated that Mr King would lose the fight in the face of the Odham’s straight advice to shareholders to reject his bid unless he stepped up his offer. The “New Daily,” another contender in the struggle for control of Odhams, today urged Odhams shareholders to reject the latest “Mirror” bid till a Royal Commission on the Press had reported its findings.