OFT mulls Lebedev's Independent buy

The Office of Fair Trading is mulling whether to refer the proposed takeover of the Independent and Independent on Sunday by Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev to a formal competition investigation. The Russian already owns the Evening Standard in London and the OFT will consider whether merging it with the predominately London-focused Independent titles will mean a substantial lessening of competition.Lebedev, who bought the Standard last year for a nominal fee, had been expected to conclude a deal ahead of cash-strapped owner Independent News and Media's next results, which are due in March.The OFT wants any comments on the deal from interested parties in writing by 11 March.