Trinity Mirror buys rival publisher Local World

The newspaper group that publishes the Western Mail has bought its rival that produces the South Wales Evening Post.

Trinity Mirror has acquired Local World in a £187.4m deal, creating the UK's largest regional group with 180 titles.

The deal also sees it take on weekly newspapers the Llanelli Star and Carmarthen Journal.

Trinity Mirror already publishes Wales on Sunday and dailies the South Wales Echo and north Wales' Daily Post.

Its flagship title is the Daily Mirror and Trinity Mirror already owned 20% of Local World, which was valued at £220m.

The 80% of the company it did not own was worth £154.4m, but the buyout cost is also made up of debts it has taken on and other fees.

Trinity Mirror will now have "a digital network of some 120 million monthly unique users", according to chief executive Simon Fox.

Local World was established at the end of 2012 following the acquisition of publishers Northcliffe and Iliffe.

Its chief executive David Montgomery said it was "full of energy and talent" and Trinity Mirror was taking on "a vibrant business".

The deal sees it acquire Wales' biggest-selling newspaper, the Swansea-based South Wales Evening Post, which sells 27,000 copies a day, according to industry figures.

Local World's weeklies the Carmarthen Journal and Llanelli Star will help push the number of titles that Trinity Mirror publishes in Wales to 18.

These include north Wales weeklies such as the Caernarfon Herald and Flintshire Chronicle and south Wales titles the Gwent Gazette and Merthyr Express.