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UPDATE 2-UK's Trinity Mirror in talks to buy rival Local World

Mon, 14th Sep 2015 10:34

(Adds Local World no comment, analyst, background and detail;also updates shares)

Sept 14 (Reuters) - Britain's Trinity Mirror Plc,publisher of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror newspapers, isin talks to buy rival Local World Holdings Ltd as it attempts tobuild scale to help counteract the impact of falling advertisingrevenue.

In a statement on Monday, Trinity Mirror put no price on thepossible deal, which a report in The Sunday Times had valued atclose to 200 million pounds ($309 million). The company saidthere was no certainty a deal could be reached and a furtherstatement would be issued when appropriate.

If the deal goes through, Trinity Mirror would be able toexpand the offerings on its automated advertising system, whichmatches advertising seen on websites to customers browsing thosesites, by giving it access to Local World's regional newspapers.

A deal would also help Trinity Mirror by building scale inlocal advertising, Liberum analyst Ian Whittaker said in a noteto clients. Trinity Mirror and Local World each publish about100 regional newspapers, according to their websites.

Local World, which declined comment, publishes regionalnewspapers from Penzance in Cornwall, southwest England, toGrimsby in Lincolnshire in the east of the country.

Shares in Trinity Mirror, which has been cutting costs toprotect profit, rose 7 percent to 149 pence by 0900 GMT, stillwell below their high for the year of 207p set in March.

The move online of both readers and advertising has hurt therevenue of newspaper publishers such as Johnston Press Plc and Daily Mail and General Trust Plc (DMGT),as well as Trinity Mirror.

DMGT owns 38.7 percent of Local World, whose chief executiveDavid Montgomery was previously CEO of Trinity Mirror and editorof newspapers Today and the News of the World.

Analysts said a deal between the two would put pressure onJohnston Press, which publishes newspapers such as the Scotsmanand the Yorkshire Post, but could come up against regulatoryconcerns.($1 = 0.6472 pounds) (Reporting by Mamidipudi Soumithri in Bengaluru; Editing byAnupama Dwivedi and David Holmes)