Johannesburg - The outcome of a review into potential offers to buy Independent Newspapers is expected within the next month, it was reported on Wednesday.
An unnamed source told Business Report that International News and Media, the Irish owners of Independent Newspapers, received an offer of R2.4bn from the Sekunjalo Consortium two weeks ago.
"The offer has money and is bankable and it's underwritten by a global investment bank," the source told the newspaper.
However, Sekunjalo Holdings chairperson Iqbal Surve refused to confirm whether the consortium had made the offer.
"We do not respond to media speculation," he said.
South African businessman Lazarus Zim denied rumours that he had formed a consortium with the Gupta brothers, who own The New Age newspaper, to make an offer.
Staff at Independent Newspapers were also establishing a workers' trust to buy at least 25% of the local operations, so they could have a say in how the company was run. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu was patron of the trust.
Independent Newspapers publishes, among others, The Star, the Pretoria News, the Cape Times, the Daily News, and The Mercury.
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