City A.M. confirmed that it was up for sale, or looking for fresh investment, earlier this month. However at the time Printweek noted that the firm’s latest accounts included a ‘material uncertainty’ note.

In a report today Sky News described City A.M. as “teetering on the brink of administration”, and said the sale was now likely to be via a pre-pack.

THG, formerly known as The Hut Group, had sales of nearly £2.4bn last year.

The ecommerce group specialises in beauty, nutrition and technology and has its own proprietary platform, THG Ingenuity, that provides digital commerce services to brands.

THG’s own online brands include Lookfantastic, Cult Beauty and MyProtein.

However, the group is not just focused on ecommerce. Last year it added printed magazines to complement its digital content offering.

Its first print magazine was for MyProtein with 100,000 copies being made available to customers.

City A.M. is published Monday to Thursday and printed by Iliffe Print in Cambridge. Its current circulation is 67,714.

According to its most recently-filed small company accounts, for calendar year 2021 and approved on December 23 2022, the business employed 32, down from 50 the prior year. Turnover was not disclosed.

It had £1.38m in bank loans and overdrafts and negative shareholders’ funds of £1.6m.

City A.M. is owned by a consortium of Dutch investors that has a 50% stake, with CEO Jens Torpe and managing director Lawson Muncaster each holding 25%.