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Telegraph's new owner makes a mint

Independent News & Media, whose £300m takeover of the Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd was announced this month, saw profits leap by 68 per cent last year.

Its £151m operating profits were achieved on record turnover of £920m.

Meanwhile, Trade & Industry Secretary Stephen Byers referred Independent’s bid for BTNL to the Competition Commission – as is mandatory under newspaper merger rules.

It was Mr Byers who forced Trinity Mirror Group to sell BTNL, as a condition for giving approval to the merger of Trinity and Mirror last year, because Mirror Group already owned a number of titles in the province.

As well as the Belfast Telegraph, which has a daily circulation of 117,207, the deal includes The Sunday Post, a number of weekly titles, and the Telegraph’s online operations.

Independent News & Media owns the Independent and the Independent on Sunday.

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