MULTI-millionaire John Madejski is to buy Goodhead, the Bicester-based printing group he saved from collapse in 1993.

He already owns two thirds as a result of the money he poured in then.

Mr Madejski, who made a £173m fortune when he sold his Auto Trader magazines outfit to City venture capitalists two years ago, is offering 68.3p a share for the third of the equity he does not already own.

The deal values the company at £31m. Mr Madejski is raising the money with a bank loan.

The company recently won a three-year contract to print nine million magazines for United News & Media.

Results for the year ended May 31,1999, showed pre-tax profits up 156 per cent at £4.6m on turnover, up 23 per cent, of £52.1m.

Profits in the year were enhanced by the sale in January of WHY Magazines to Northcliffe Newspapers Group in a £2.3m deal.

Spokesman John Cooling said: "The stock market is not interested in printing and if we stayed in the London Stock Exchange we would not be able to take the company where we want it to go.

"We want to make a substantial investment which would hit our profit-and-loss account, which shareholders would not like. So Mr Majeski decided to make an offer for the shares now."

He is offering a 30 per cent premium above the price of the shares on January 13, when the deal was first mooted.

Mr Madejski said: "When I invested new equity capital in November 1993, Goodhead was in financial difficulty."

He said that since he had originally put money in, the company had been successfully refocused and the results had improved.

"I consider this is an appropriate time to make an offer to Goodhead shareholders, many of whom have remained loyal shareholders over the years."

Story date: Tuesday 21 March

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.