Mayor Bloomberg eyes bid for £1bn Financial Times (FT) Group

NEW YORK mayor Michael Bloomberg is weighing up whether to make a bid for Financial Times (FT) Group, according to speculation in the US.

An article in the New York Times said the mayor, who owns 88 per cent of the financial information company which bears his name, was a fan of the FT’s “generally short, punchy and to-the-point articles, which match his temperament”.

Although the FT Group, which also owns the Economist, has not been put up for sale, last month Bloomberg reported that owner Pearson was planning to explore a disposal to enable it to focus on its fast-growing education division.

The New York Times said FT Group, which could be valued at about £1 billion, would be well within the financial reach of Bloomberg, which in 2011 had revenues of $7.6bn (£4.7bn).

A spokesman for the mayor, the tenth richest person in the US, declined to comment.

Meanwhile Pearson said yesterday that non-executive director Patrick Cescau will retire from its board at the end of the year. Cescau, the former group chief executive of Unilever, is taking up the post of chairman of InterContinental Hotels at the beginning of 2013.

Vivienne Cox, who joined the Pearson board as a non-executive director at the beginning of 2012, will become Pearson’s senior independent director from next year. Shares in Pearson edged up 5p to 1,182p.