West Ferry will remain a joint venture

31 August 2004

West Ferry is to remain a joint venture after Express Newspapers boss Richard Desmond announced that he would not attempt to buy out the Telegraph Groups 50% share of the print business.

The announcement comes just a week after the Barclay brothers appointed Murdoch MacLennan as chief executive of the group they bought in a 665m deal in July.

In a statement, Desmond said: "In the Barclays we have found like-minded business people with whom we can work. This will be a strong partnership between two private companies ensuring the long-term success of the plant."

A spokesman for Sir Frederick Barclay said: "We are very pleased that the partnership will continue, and look forward to working with Richard Desmond and his team at West Ferry."

Desmond had been widely tipped to launch a bid to buy the Barclays out of West Ferry, under a clause in the joint venture contract which gives one party the right to buy the other party's stake in the event of a change of ownership.

The Express Newspapers boss had until 10 September to launch a bid, 42 days after the completion of the Barclays' deal with Hollinger for the group.

Desmond previously attempted to trigger the change of ownership clause in February this year (PrintWeek, 11 February 2004).

The decision will safeguard long-term production for the Telegraph Group's newspapers, which are contracted to print at the plant until 2009.

Desmond had previously stated that any new owner of the Telegraph Group would have to find a new site, as he needed the capacity used to print the Telegraph for his own papers (PrintWeek, 3 March 2004).

The Docklands print site, which produces six national daily titles including the Financial Times, the Star, the Guardian and the Sport, is now likely to receive significant investment in repressing.