MediaTel

The latest 6 month interim results for Scottish Media Group (SMG), released today, showed healthy pre-tax profits, up 27% on revenues 15% ahead. Earnings per share also increased by 18.6%.

SMG announced yesterday that it has made a £31 million (80p per share) takeover offer for video publishing group VCI (see Newsline). If the acquisition goes through, SMG expect to be able to raise their 1998 pre-tax profit forecast by £2 million to £47.5 million, with EPS raised from 50.2 to 51.4p.

The group are also considering launching a new Sunday newspaper, and already own The Herald and The Glasgow Evening Times.

Merrill Lynch: 0171 772 2337 Scottish Media: 0141 300 3000