Tindle Newspapers has upped its stake in Johnston Press, according to a report in The Times (behind paywall)
Last month Sir Ray Tindle increased his shareholding in the company to 4.36pc, but with Johnston shares now valued at 5p he has upped his stake to 6.36 per cent.
Tindle told The Times on Monday:
My opinion is that newspapers are undervalued at the moment. I know that people out in the sticks still by their local papers.
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Tindle said that Johnston, which owns the The Yorskhire Post and The Scotsman, has ‘a lot of papers, good papers. They are all good friends and they are coping well with the problem”.
He told The Times that a small upturn in the economy would put the business ‘back on the straight and narrow”.
“They are undervalued, so I decided to buy,’said Tindle, who ruled out making a takeover bid for the company but said he would be interested in increasing his stake in the future.
Figures released by Johnston last month showed that operating profit fell 25.7 per cent in the first six months of 2011 to £32.6m, while turnover was down 7.5 per cent to £191.8m.
Profit before tax was nearly halved – falling from £26.1m to £13.8m.
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