THOMSON SELLS U.K. PAPERS
By Adnews Staff
Toronto-based Thomson Corp. is selling most of its British newspapers to Trinity International Holdings PLC for $608.9 million. The move will increase Trinity's regional market share in Britain to 22% from 5%. The papers involved in the deal include those in Belfast, Cardiff, Chester, Newcastle and Teesside. The Aberdeen Press and the Edinburgh Evening News are not included in the deal, and are still up for grabs. Thomson has been refocusing the company for some time to tie its performance to the non-advertising based segment of the information business. In the past 10 months, it has bought medical information services provider Medstat Group and electronic data base unit Ziff Communications. It has also put about 25 U.S. and 21 Canadian newspapers on the selling block. Trinity already owns the Liverpool Echo, the Huddersfield Daily Examiner Post, as well as newspapers and magazines in Canada, the U.S. and Scotland.