Trinity Mirror has confirmed “strong interest” from a range of potential buyers for its regional newspapers put up for sale earlier this year.

In its annual results statement today, the company, which is selling many of its regional titles, including the Birmingham Post and Mail, Coventry Telegraph, South London Press, Croydon Advertiser and Surrey Mirror, said deals could be done by the end of the year.

The report said: “We have strong interest from both trade buyers and private equity and expect to complete these transactions during the second and third quarters of 2007.”

Trinity Mirror is to concentrate on assets in Wales, the north east, the north west, Scotland and the nationals.

The company does not believe the regional businesses in the Midlands and London and the South East offer the same opportunities for the group and are likely to be more attractive to other owners.

Free newspaper owner Chris Bullivant has already announced he would like to bid for Trinity Mirror’s midlands titles nd invest in them if he is successful.

It plans to return the cash proceeds, after payment of related taxes and payments into the pension funds, to shareholders.

It also revealed revenues at Trinity Mirror have fallen by 4.8 per cent on last year’s figures, due to difficult advertising conditions.

Revenues were down to £1.032.1m, with profit before tax down 13.8 per cent to £185.4m.

The company has exceeded its expectations on cost savings though, with £20m saved – £5m above what it had hoped for.

Chief executive Sly Bailey said in her report to investors: “We performed creditably throughout 2006 in a harsh climate across the media industry.

“We have reduced costs significantly in response to the industry-wide decline in advertising volumes with the result that we have limited the inevitable impact on our profitability.

“In addition we have completed a fundamental business review and come out of that with a clear road map for the group’s future.”

Staff came in for praise, with the report stating: “Throughout 2006, our staff, across all areas of our business, have demonstrated their talent, tenacity and enthusiasm in rising to the challenges we have faced.

“On behalf of the board, we would like to thank them for their commitment and hard work over the course of the year,” it said.

The regionals division, in line with company strategy, continued to launch new titles and websites to “deepen penetration of core markets”.

Regionals revenue fell by £23.7m (4.4 per cent) and operating profit fell by £24.5m (16.2 per cent).

Excluding acquisitions, revenue for the regionals fell by £35.6m (6.7 per cent) from £530.4m to £494.8m and operating profit decreased by £27.2m (18.2 per cent) from £149.8m to £122.6m.

During the year, the division experienced circulation volume declines of 7.7 per cent for Evening titles, 6.3 per cent for Morning titles, 4.8 per cent for Weekly titles and 8.7 per cent for Sunday titles.

Nationally, the company strategy – to build a multi-platform media business – remained on course throughout 2006.

The results statement said that in the face of advertising conditions, the company’s performance was “creditable”, adding:

“Whilst group revenues fell by £51.5m to £1,032.1m, the impact on profit was partially mitigated through tight cost management which contributed to operating profits falling by only £37.4m to £207m.

“We continued to further segment and layer our portfolio by geography and target segments, across both print and on-line, deepening our penetration in our core markets.

“This activity saw us launch both companion web sites to many of our print titles, micro sites serving local communities and sites serving key advertising markets in recruitment, property and motors. In addition we launched six new newspapers and continued to acquire digital assets.”