HOLLLINGER <HLG.TO> PAYING 50 MLN DLRS FOR BUY
Hollinger Inc will pay about 50 mln dlrs
cash for its previously reported acquisition of privately owned
Unimedia Inc, chairman Conrad Black told reporters after the
annual meeting, confirming a published report.
    Commenting on press reports about the 50 mln dlr price tag,
Black said, "That would not be wildly inaccurate," although he
declined to disclose the actual cost.
    Montreal-based Unimedia is Quebec's third largest newspaper
group, with three French language daily newspapers in Quebec
City, Ottawa and Chicoutimi, Quebec and four printing plants in
Ontario and Quebec.
    Black added that Hollinger would also continue seeking
acquisitions of daily newspapers with circulation under 25,000
readers. He said Hollinger was currently talking to about 10
such newspapers in the U.S. where the company currently owns 23
dailies.
    "There is really no end to the ones that are available," he
told reporters, although he added that most remaining
acquisition opportunities are in the U.S.
    He said that Hollinger's 58 pct-owned Daily Telegraph PLC,
of London, should become profitable in this year's fourth
quarter.
   
    For full-year 1987, the Daily Telegraph could break even or
better, said Black, citing major reductions in labor costs and
improved technology at the Telegraph, Britain's largest
circulation quality daily. The Telegraph lost 13.2 mln Canadian
dlrs last year.
    Daily Telegraph chief executive Andrew Knight told
reporters after the meeting that the Telegraph's daily
circulation had risen by 25,000 since September to about
1,150,000 on weekdays, despite added competition from the new
Independent daily newspaper.
   
    Knight said The Independent was not affecting the
Telegraph's growth, but was making inroads into the circulation
of other London quality dailies such as The Times and The
Guardian.
    Hollinger chairman Black predicted Hollinger would post
1987 net income of about 55 mln dlrs, or one dlr a share,
including extraordinary gains from previous sales of
discontinued operations. Hollinger lost 87 mln dlrs or 6.54
dlrs a share last year on fewer average shares and after an
extraordinary loss of 52 mln dlrs.
   
    Black told shareholders that first quarter operating
earnings on continuing operations amounted to 499,000 dlrs
against a year-ago loss of 165,000 dlrs.
    Revenues on continuing operations rose to 102.1 mln dlrs
from 1.5 mln dlrs last year, which did not include Daily
Telegraph revenues, he added. Consolidated first quarter
figures were not disclosed.
    He said the Daily Telegraph's first quarter operating loss
was sharply reduced from last year.
 Reuter
