Shareholders of newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror have approved its takeover of fellow local publishing group Local World.
The £220m deal, announced last month, was formally ratified by Trinity Mirror shareholders at a general meeting today.
A total of 235,558,950 voting shares were cast in favour of the deal with 10,641 voting against.
The number of votes cast represented more than 83pc of the 280m-plus shares in circulation.
It means the sale has now been completed and the two companies have become a single legal entity. There has been no reference made to the competition authorities.
The newly-merged company is now the biggest local newspaper publisher in the UK, with the main regional daily titles in 14 of the country’s biggest centres of population in the UK.
In a regulatory announcement, Trinity Mirror said: “On 28 October, Trinity Mirror plc announced the proposed acquisition of all of the shares in Local World Holdings Limited not already owned by the Company.
“Following shareholder approval of the Transaction at the General Meeting as announced earlier today, Trinity Mirror is pleased to confirm that it has completed the acquisition.”
The purchase price paid by TM for the 80pc of shares in LW it did not already own was £154.4m, plus a further £33m in other costs, valuing the company at £220m overall.
Dealing in shares in the newly combined company is expected to begin on Monday.
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Meantime, the Johnston Press share price slumped to 61p today, a fall of over 50% in just 4 months. Just saying.
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Money well spent ….As I sit here looking at my news free through my iPad . Newspaper game is over, Local World has got out at the death.
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The scissors will be sharpened, soon the inevitable cutting will begin.
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veryoldhack: You’re right and the precise extent of the cuts was published on this site when the deal was first announced a few weeks ago – £3.2m to come off “content generation”, and I don’t think this refers to the chief exec’s drinks cabinet.
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£3.2 million was the quoted figure and that’s a lot of journos salaries
Wonder if the shareholders will be happy when the share prices ( which tbh is all they’re interested in ) drops to a level that causes them to think again about the wisdom of this take over
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