Investors raise stakes in UTV Media

TWO DUBLIN-based investors have given UTV Media's ailing share price a major boost by deciding to raise their stake in the Northern Ireland media group.

TVC Holdings yesterday increased its stake in the Belfast based group by 3 per cent while Organo Investments upped its shareholding by 2.9 per cent.

TVC Holdings paid £2.2 million to bring its total shareholding in UTV Media to 18 per cent. TVC Holdings is the largest single shareholder in UTV which operates the ITV franchise in the North and owns 24 radio stations throughout the UK and Ireland.

Organo Investments, which is owned by Neill Hughes and Peter Crowley of The Racing Post, yesterday increased its stake in UTV Media from 6.6 per cent to 9.5 per cent. Both investment vehicles are relatively recent suitors of the Belfast multimedia group having first invested in UTV just five months ago.

TVC Holdings initially paid £14.9 million in July to acquire an 11 per cent stake in UTV. It followed this up by acquiring an additional 4 per cent shareholding in the group in the same month.

The executive chairman of TVC Holdings, Shane Reihill, joined UTV's board of directors in September.

Organo Investments bought its first stake in the Northern Ireland group also in July for £7.3 million.

Both Dublin investment vehicles have seen the value of their investments in UTV Media fall sharply in line with a marked deterioration in television advertising revenues.

This time last year UTV's share price was averaging around 346 pence. Shares in the Belfast company rallied by as much as 22 per cent yesterday on the London Stock Exchange to hit a high of 100 pence before closing at 92.25 pence.

UTV, which has a current market capitalization of £78.64 million, last week reported a 6 per cent increase in total revenue for the 10 months to October of this year.

The Belfast company has warned that television advertising revenue is expected to fall by 10 per cent during this month and next while revenue from its radio operations will be flat.