Merchant bank Samuel Montagu yesterday forked out UKP64m – 481p a share, against a price of 503p in the market – to acquire Robert Maxwell’s 26.4% stake in news agency and communications group Extel Group Plc from NM Rothschild on behalf of unnamed clients believed to be US rival McGraw Hill, or UK publisher Norton Opax; according to the London Evening Standard, United Newspapers chairman Lord Stevens, who through the MIM fund management group already holds 10% of Extel, is another potential buyer but this seems unlikely as his lordship’s relations with Maxwell are good enough for him to have acquired the stake directly; Rupert Faure-Walker of Montagu says that he is in negotiations over the stake and will divulge the name of his clients within days rather than weeks.
