National World shareholders have previously approved a £65m, 23.00p a share offer from Media Concierge takeover vehicle Neo Media Publishing. 

However, this morning (28 March), National World confirmed that Eldridge Media Holdings LLC was “considering making a proposal”.

Eldridge Media Holdings is not a UK entity. It appears to be connected to US investment group Eldridge Industries, which has a broad portfolio of investments including media firms.

While no formal offer has been received as yet, National World directors said the board would consider the terms of any proposal put forward by EMH “that may deliver superior value to National World shareholders” than the agreed scheme with Neo Media Publishing.

National World shares jumped by 7.16% on the news and were trading at a new 52-week high of 23.36p at the time of writing (low: 12.70p).

The group owns Insider Media and a raft of regional news brands. It had sales of £96m last year and made an operating profit of £4.2m.

It distributed 27.6m paid-for newspapers, 7.3m free copies and 600,000 magazines.