Lebedev acquires Independent titles for £1

In what must be the best buy-out deal of the year, the former KGB agent, billionaire and Evening Standard owner, Alexander Lebedev yesterday acquired the Independent and Independent On Sunday newspapers for £1.

The Dublin-based Independent News & Media (INM), owner of the titles will also be paying Independent Print Limited, the company set up by Lebedev to publish the titles, £9.25 million over the next 10 months to cover all future trading liabilities and obligations up to this year.

The notional price paid reflects the losses the papers have been incurring over the years with both titles losing £12.5 million last year despite cutting costs and reducing headcount.

Citing a source close to the deal, the London-based Financial Times reported that INM would have stood to lose between £28 million and £40 million had it close the papers.

Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev, who had acquired the Evening Standard newspaper for a nominal sum in January 2009 (See: Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev buys London's Evening Standard newspaper), had also signalled his interest in acquiring
The Independent

Since his acquisition of the Evening Standard, Lebedev circulated the paper free of charge, boosting its circulation to about 600,000 from 250,000, taking its readership to 1.4 million Londoners daily.