Spectator managers eye buyout

EXECUTIVES at The Spectator magazine hope to strike a management buyout deal if its Telegraph Group parent is sold.

Former Spectator proprietor Algy Cluff, who remains chairman of the 175-year-old magazine, wants to pursue a takeover by the management team if there is a change of ownership of the Telegraph newspapers.

As Lord Black's Hollinger group looks set to unravel, speculation has been rife that the Telegraph newspapers will be bought by another publisher.

Possible bidders could include Richard Desmond's Express Newspapers, Daily Mail and General Trust, owner of the London Evening Standard, the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and This Is Money, and private equity backed investors.

However, so far, Spectator management has been given no indication by Dan Colson, now chief operating officer at Hollinger International, that the newspapers and magazine will be sold. At a board meeting last week, The Spectator was told it was 'business as usual'.

The Spectator falls under the umbrella of the Telegraph Group, but Cluff hopes that if the parent company is sold, the magazine's management will have the opportunity to split off and buy itself out separately.

As well as its 'trophy' status, The Spectator is a highly profitable magazine. It made a pre-tax profit last year of £1.4m, up from the previous year's £1.3m, on sales of £7.2m against £6.7m before.