Rosenblatt has acted for Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell group on the sale of its newspaper and magazine publishing business for £127 million to rival, Trinity Mirror Plc. The deal means that the publisher of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror will now add a string of national publications to its portfolio, including the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Starand OK! Magazine.
Touted as one of the most significant consolidations of British national newspapers in the last decade, the acquisition marks the end of Mr Desmond’s 43 year long publishing career.
Rosenblatt also acted for Mr Desmond’s group on various other media deals in the last decade, including the purchase of Channel 5 in 2010 and subsequent sale to Viacom in 2014, the sale of Portland TV in 2016 and the acquisition of The Health Lottery in 2010.
The Rosenblatt team was led by Jon Lovitt (Corporate Partner) who was assisted by Sandra Rodriguez (Corporate Solicitor) and Amanpreet Bhandal (Corporate Solicitor). The corporate team were also supported by Chris Pulham (Media Partner), Philip Alfandary (Tax Partner), David Sachs (Banking Partner), Martin Buckeldee (Real Estate Solicitor) and Tom Driscoll (Banking Solicitor).
