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SRH could be part of Emap’s empire in less than three months says insider

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

May 6, 2004 | 3 min read

An insider at Emap has given the strongest indication yet that the group fully expects to have acquired Scottish Radio Holdings within the next three months.

According to the insider, senior executives are already having meetings to discuss what life will be like when the deal is done, sometime before the end of the summer.

The source said: “People at Emap are now using phrases such as ‘when we takeover SRH’ as opposed to ‘if we take over SRH’. This is going to happen and perhaps much sooner than many people think.”

Such a takeover would be expected to have a significant affect on the Scottish radio marketplace and also on the senior management structure at SRH.

An official Emap spokesperson refused to confirm or deny the speculation and Richard Findlay, chief executive of Scottish Radio Holdings, was also unavailable for comment as The Drum went to press.

However, the Scottish media industry is awash with speculation about any such deal.

Radio industry expert and senior lecturer in media and journalism at Caledonian University, Ken Garner, said: “I think it’s inevitable that the company’s ownership will change at some point. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but I do think that there will be some sadness amongst the industry up here if control of the group is taken down south.

Alison Black, account director at Feather Brooksbank, added: “Consolidation is inevitable and this would not be a major surprise. There seems to be a current trend with strong Scottish media brands being controlled outwith Scotland."

However, Gill Eatwell, associate director at Spirit Media, was sceptical about the deal being concluded quite so quickly. She said: “It is the era of consolidation and big radio groups will get bigger, but I would say that the SRH and Emap issue is premature. I know that SRH is happy to have such a successful radio company as a shareholder, but I don’t think it’s going any further than that as yet.”

2004 has been an eventful year so far for both Emap and SRH. In January SMG sold its 27.8 per cent stake in SRH to Emap for a reported £90.5m, immediately fuelling rumours that a full takeover would be on the cards.

At the time Emap stated that it was not preparing an immediate takeover, but that it now had a “foot in the door” at SRH.

That same month Tim Schoonmaker, head of radio at Emap, left the company amongst rumours that he was unhappy with the future direction of the media giant.

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