Martin Morgan, the chief executive of Daily Mail & General Trust, today signalled that the company's a strong balance sheet could see it back on the acquisition trail – but not in regional newspapers.

Morgan said DMGT's first priority was extra investment in its existing operations, followed by "bolt-on acquisitions to good existing businesses".

"The M&A [mergers and acquisitions] market has picked up, the number of potential acquisitions coming across our desk has picked up," he added. "There are a number of deals we are looking at at any given time."

He said a larger scale deal, possibly to move DMGT into a new area of business, was a lower priority. "We are not really at the moment looking to make a major acquisition in new sectors," he added.

Morgan said that while the DMGT could see the benefits of consolidation in the regional sector he would not be looking to buy a rival.

"We can see that there could be benefits from consolidation ... [however] we don't see ourselves putting additional capital in for us to be a consolidator," he added.

But Morgan said this did not mean DMGT was in any way "abandoning" its own regional newspaper portfolio. "We don't see ourselves taking the initiative in consolidation in the industry."

He added that he also did not see much likelihood, in the current market conditions, of much "fresh equity" coming into the market to drive regional consolidation either.

The possibility of an increase in acquisition activity has been sparked by the "significant reduction" in DMGT's debt position from £1bn to £862m in the year to 3 October.

DMGT said its improved financial position, with only £3m of short-term bank loans still outstanding at year end, meant that the company was comfortably trading within the target range of 2x to 2.5x net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

DMGT results by division

Associated Newspapers
Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Mail Online, Metro

Revenue: -3% year on year to £850m

Operating profit: +54% to £95m

Operating margin: 11%

Northcliffe Media
113 daily, weekly and free regional papers, more than 150 local websites

Revenue: -10% to £294m

Operating profit: +24% to £30m

Operating margin: 10%

Euromoney

Revenue: +4% to £330m

Operating profit: +25% to £96m

Operating margin: 29%

DMG Events

Revenue: -37% to £110m

Operating profit: -19% to £30m

Operating margin 27%

DMG Information

Revenue: flat at £231m

Operating profit: +14% to £53m

Operating margin: 23%

Risk Management Solutions

Revenue: +12% to £153m

Operating profit: +12% to £47m

Operating margin: 31%

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