Chrysalis boss welcomes £170m sale to Global Radio

LONDON - Chrysalis Radio chief executive Phil Riley thinks the company is now "well placed" to play a part in industry consolidation following its £170m sale to Global Radio, a private investment company chaired by former ITV chief executive Charles Allen.

Chrysalis boss welcomes £170m sale to Global Radio
Riley said he would now be working with the company's new owners to "knit together" his and their visions.
He refuted suggestions the division had bowed to the strains of the review period and had been underperforming of late, saying he was aware his team had been "performing especially well" while he had been preoccupied with the sale.
Riley said: "We haven't talked about things going forward, but I am here to grow the business and give Global a return on its investment - it's business as usual."
A former employee of Riley's, Emap Radio's marketing director Steve Parkinson, said this week that the news of the sale was "fantastic".
"Having worked at Chrysalis for 10 years, I think finding a company that on the face of it wants to keep the division together can only be a good thing for it," he said. "I know Ashley [Tabor - a Global Radio director] well and he has a lot of charisma and is a guy who gets radio and has passion for it.
"He and Charles are both big media savvy personalities, so I think there will be a lot of happy faces at Chrysalis today."
Richard Menzies-Gow, analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, said Allen's involvement in the deal is a sign that the investors "believe in radio and expect it to recover", though admit they may have "taken a punt".
Chrysalis has been under strategic review since February and bosses claimed to have received "a range of different proposals", with Guardian Media Group considered a potential buyer after raising more than £675m from the sale of 49.9% of its stake in Trader Media.
"The multiple is a bit lower than other sales we've seen," said Menzies-Gow. "But I think that reflects the recognition that it is going to have to invest further over the next few years to push the thing forward."
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