Britain's Daily Mail & General Trust reported a big jump in first-half profits today and said it was still in the running to buy the Daily Telegraph.
The publisher of the Daily Mailsaid pre-tax profits before exceptional items for the half year ended April 4th came in at £107.3, up 29 per cent on the year-ago period.
The newspaper publisher said it expects the auction for US publisher Hollinger International's prize asset, the biggest-selling broadsheet in Britain, to end soon but would not comment further on the process.
Sources have said Hollinger International hopes to reach a deal on the sale the Telegraphby mid-June, after talks with three remaining parties over the next couple of weeks.
The Daily Mailhooked up with buyout firms Apax and Candover, sources say, amid fears that if it continued to bid alone it could face regulatory hurdles. The other two bidders are the billionaire Barclay brothers and venture capital group 3i.
The Telegraph Group - comprising The Daily Telegraph, its Sunday sister publication and current affairs magazine The Spectator- came up for sale after a bitter dispute erupted between Hollinger's board and its then chief executive, Mr Conrad Black, over disputed payments he received from the company.