Bailey faces potential bidding war for Trinity

Sly Bailey, the newly appointed chief executive of Trinity Mirror, will today start her new job at the newspaper group in the midst of a potential bidding war for its titles.

The company said yesterday that it would consider all "serious" takeover offers after it emerged that two venture capital firms made a joint approach late last year. Apax Partners and Candover made the joint approach to Sir Victor Blank, chairman of Trinity, to discuss a possible takeover.

The informal proposals were not discussed with Trinity's board because Sir Victor believed the 450p-a-share price tag indicated by the venture capitalists, which values the group at £1.3bn, was too low. Trinity shares were trading at about 400p at the time.

Talks with Sir Victor were frozen before Christmas. Since then, Trinity's share price has dipped to 369.5p, valuing Trinity at £1.07bn, and putting the Apax and Candover bid at a more attractive premium for shareholders. Concerns over the falling circulation of the group's flagship titles have raised questions over the future of the group.

A spokesman for the company yesterday said the board would look at any serious offer that was put forward, but selling any of the group's titles was not a priority for the board. Trinity's national titles, which include the People and the Sunday Mirror as well as the Daily Mirror, were the primary target in Apax's and Candover's sights. But it is understood the whole group, including its 240 regional titles eventually became part of the discussions.

Candover is a former owner of Regional Independent Media, which it sold to Johnston Press and Midland Independent Newspapers.

Ms Bailey, who joins Trinity from the magazine publisher IPC, will have to consider resurrecting the bid talks, which is likely to bring forward other approaches. She will also have to fend off an embarrassing legal claim against the group by Ric Piper, who was set to join as finance director in October from WS Atkins, the private financing firm. Trinity Mirror, however, revoked his contract after a profits warning from WS Atkins, where Mr Piper had been finance director for the past nine years, two days before his start date. Mr Piper is now suing Trinity for £1m in damages and loss of earnings.

Ms Bailey, former head of IPC magazines, was revealed as the replacement for Philip Graf at Trinity at the end of last year.