Sir Anthony O’Reilly is now actively seeking a buyer for The Independent – according to The Times.
Sir Anthony is due to hand over the reigns of Independent News and Media to son Gavin in May. According to The Times, the Independent titles are expected to lose more than £10m between them this year – and they have never returned a profit in the 11 years they have been owned by IN&M.
The paper reports that IN&M has asked media banker at Lazard Nicholas Schott to drum up interest in a possible sale. He handled the sale of the Telegraph titles in 2004 to the Barclay brothers and of the Evening Standard in January to Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev for £1.
The Independent is in the process of moving from Canary Wharf to share office space with Associated Newspapers in Kensington, West London.
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Times media editor Dan Sabbagh speculates that the Independent would be unlikely to fetch more than a token sale figure of £1 due to its losses.
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