* Shares rise as much as 10% in early trade
* Rothermeres' bid conditional on certain deals going
through
* DMGT plans special dividend from Cazoo listing, RMS sale
(Adds analyst reaction)
By Muvija M and Paul Sandle
July 12 (Reuters) - The founding family and leading investor
in the publisher of Britain's Daily Mail newspaper is
considering taking the group private in a $1.1 billion deal as
part of a break-up of the business.
The Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said the
Rothermeres, who own 28% of the company, are ready to make a
cash offer to buy the group outright, provided it sells its RMS
insurance risk business and that the listing of online car
seller Cazoo, which it partially owns, goes ahead.
Shares in DMGT, which publishes the Daily Mail tabloid, The
Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, climbed as much as 10% to their
highest in more than two decades in early trading. They were up
3.3% at 1,074 pence at 1240 GMT.
The Daily Mail was first published in 1896 by the ancestors
of current DMGT chairman Jonathan Harmsworth, the Viscount
Rothermere.
The Mail has weathered the long-term decline in newspaper
sales better than rivals, overtaking Rupert Murdoch's Sun to
become the UK's top-selling newspaper last year, and wields
political clout as the voice of conservative "middle England".
The group's website - MailOnline - is among the most visited
English-language news sites globally thanks to its celebrity
focused formula.
DMGT, which has been slimming down in the last few years to
focus on its mainstay news business, said on Monday it was in
talks to sell RMS in a deal that could complete before the end
of September.
Without its interests in Cazoo and RMS - which offers
risk-modeling for businesses - DMGT would comprise news
publishing and its events and property information businesses.
DMGT said it intended to distribute the proceeds of a sale
of RMS along with its cash and its stake in a listed Cazoo via a
special dividend, with a cash element of about 610 pence.
The company's stake in Cazoo could be worth $1.35 billion
after the flotation, expected in the current quarter.
Contingent on the transactions, the Rothermeres would be
prepared to offer 251 pence for each DMGT share, DMGT said.
Analysts at Berenberg said the approximate value of the
terms implied a value per share of 1,261 pence, a 21% premium on
Friday's closing price.
"The premium doesn't represent a knock out offer, but given
the Rothermere holding company already controls the group, there
aren't really other alternatives, and versus the share price of
DMGT earlier in the year, it's obviously very significant
upside," they said.
"Its unlikely, therefore, that we will see a much more
generous offer appear from elsewhere."
DMGT's liquidity has been constrained by its dual-share
structure, with voting rights only granted to some stock,
tightening the family's hold on the company.
(Reporting by Muvija M and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru and
Paul Sandle in London; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Louise Heavens
and Keith Weir)
