GCap Media: one previous owner, needs serious attention

This report examines the proposed acquisition of GCap Media by Global Radio for £375 million which, if successful, will signal the end of a commercial radio giant that, in its brief three-year existence, succeeded in destroying considerable shareholder value and dragging down the rest of the sector. It will also signal the transfer of the most significant portfolio of commercial radio real estate from public to private ownership. Global Radio, which did not even exist a year ago, would become the dominant player in a sector that will have seen three of its largest groups – GCap, Emap Radio and Chrysalis Radio – all change hands from public to private ownership within a year