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City's publishing giant turns the final page
HUNDREDS of workers with Peterborough magazine publisher Emap are today facing an uncertain future after most of the company was sold in a multi-million pound deal.
HUNDREDS of workers with Peterborough magazine publisher Emap are today facing an uncertain future after most of the company was sold in a multi-million pound deal.Boss of the Lynch Wood-based firm, Alun Cathcart, said it was impossible to rule out job losses among the 700 staff after shareholders voted overwhelmingly to sell the business for 1.14 billion.
Talking exclusively to the Evening Telegraph immediately after the shareholders meeting in London yesterday, chairman Mr Cathcart said: "We can't rule anything out. However, we feel this is the best possible deal for the company.
"Bauer is an excellent company. It has been around since 1875 and is in the fourth generation of family ownership and there aren't any overlaps between Bauer and our Peterborough operations."
Read more:
Feature: Emap: Story of the city publishing giant 1947 - 2008
The story of city publishing giant Emap and its sale to German publisher Bauer in January 2008.
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It took just half-an-hour for shareholders to back the board of directors' proposals to sell both the consumer media business and the radio business to the German-based magazine publisher Bauer.
It brings an end to 61 years of Emap's presence in Peterborough since its creation as a local newspaper group by Pat Winfrey. At its height the company employed about 2,000 people across the greater Peterborough area, mostly in its newspapers, which included the Evening Telegraph.
The sale will also pave the way for 1 billion to be returned to shareholders at 461p a share.
The final moments came at a meeting of just 100 shareholders at a Holiday Inn hotel, tucked away in the backs streets of central London.
In the hall, the two resolutions were opposed by just five people. But the final votes were cast overwhelmingly for a sale with 98 in favour.
Voting against the sale, Russell Hole, who worked for Emap for 28 years and is the former publishing director of the magazine and former managing director and chairman of a number of its various local newspaper companies, said: "The board of directors should remember the people who are going to work for Emap in the next few months – these people are going to know they may be working themselves out of a job."
Mr Cathcart replied: "We hope that not many will work themselves out of a job."
And former Emap employer Roger Green asked: "Where did it all go wrong? When did directors decide to give up and sell the business?"
But Mr Cathcart told him that, despite huge investment, the company had not been able to make a great impression on the stock market to force up the share price and that had been the company's undoing.
And that showed in the final voting with more than 110 million votes backing the sales with just over 560,000 opposed. While there are more than 215,842,000 shares in existence, seven major shareholding companies each control between four per cent and seven per cent.
It is understood Bauer could take control of the Peterborough business as soon as early February, so long as the legalities of the sale are tied up.
After the meeting, some of the shareholders present voiced their disappointment at the outcome.
Mr Hole said: “It is a very sad time for a once great company.”
nA second meeting of shareholders will be held next month to vote on proposals to sell the remaining business-to-business section of Emap.
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