While the $105 million asking price for Virgin Radio might be peanuts in the world of cross-border M&A, the sale of the U.K.’s third-largest commercial radio station to Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., India’s largest media group, could signal a wave of deal work from emerging markets.
On June 2, Mumbai-based Bennett Coleman announced that its Times Infotainment Media (TIML) unit would acquire Virgin Radio from Glasgow-based SMG. Bennett Coleman serves as a holding company for The Times Group, publisher of the world’s largest English-language newspaper, The Times of India. It is owned, somewhat ironically, by the press-shy Sahu Jain family.
