Barclay Bros buy Sunday Business

The newspaper Sunday Business has been bought out of receiver ship by European Press Holdings, which owns The European and The Scotsman.

EPH, which is owned by media moguls the Barclay Brothers, says it will continue to publish a Sunday paper aimed at business readers.

The title was bought for an undisclosed sum from the administrative receiver Begbies. EPH set up a new subsidiary, called Sunday Business Publishing, to handle the deal.

EPH chief executive Bert Hardy says: “We are looking forward to developing this title from what will essentially be a green field start.” He refuses to give further details.

Andrew Neil, who becomes editor-in-chief of the title, says: “We see this as an excellent opportunity to exploit a niche which we believe is available in the Sunday market.”

Sunday Business was launched in April 1996 amidst financial uncertainty which ensured that neither printers nor journalists were paid regularly.

Earlier this year, one of the paper’s major shareholders, Pizza Express chairman Luke Johnson, was hoping to float the venture on the stock market.

Since then Group 2000, which owned 75 per cent of Sunday Business, has gone into receivership. Two weeks later, the paper followed its parent into receivership.