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said that it had been informed by its shareholder Investment AB Kinnevik of the offer, which was received after the notice for the General Meeting to be held on February 24 was announced.

At the General Meeting the board of directors of Metro is seeking shareholders' authorisation to raise new financing through an issue of debentures and warrants.

Metro International, in a statement, said that given the preliminary nature of the offer information, the board of directors is still recommending shareholders approve the proposed resolutions.

Interest in Metro International may cause the board to postpone the use of any authorisation given at the meeting or to abstain from using it at all.

The statement said: "The indication of interest will be evaluated expeditiously. At this stage there is no certainty that this will lead to a public offer for Metro International, and the board of directors of Metro International is not in a position to express any view on the potential bid."

News of the offer follows closure of Metro International operations in Spain at the end of January due to the "steadily declining ad market".

The closure resulted in the loss of more than £5m and up to 83 jobs.

The free daily newspaper, which was published in seven Spanish cities, including Valencia, Castellon de la Plana and Albacete, was distributed for the last time yesterday.

Metro also recently reported its fourth quarter results with an operating loss of €1.9m as it struggles in Southern Europe and the US.

Yesterday in the UK, Metro International announced the promotion of Paul Kingston to the position of UK sales director. Kingston will head media strategy for international UK sales, selling into Metro's twenty one markets across EMEA, ASIA, US and LATAM.

He has worked within Metro's UK International sales team for four years and will report directly into the global sales director Alistair Ballantyne.

The focus will be to heighten Metro International’s global coverage whilst providing one point of contact to UK based international agencies and clients to reach our twenty one million daily readers; Paul is the perfect candidate to deliver that message," Ballantyne said.