RCS stock soars after Cairo bid (2)

(ANSA) - Milan, April 11 - The share price of RCS, the publisher of top Italian dailies Corriere della Sera and La Gazzetta dello Sport, soared by 22%, taking it to 0.55 euro, in early trading on Monday. The rise comes after media businessman Urbano Cairo announced after markets closed Friday that he was making a bid for a controlling stake in the group. Cairo, who owns Torino soccer club and TV broadcaster La7, said Monday that he was not launching a hostile takeover, stressing he wanted existing stakeholders to stay on board. The bid features a share-swap offer with 0.12 of a share in Cairo Communication being offered for each RCS share. "It's a market operation, not a hostile takeover," Cairo said. "We want to keep the old partners inside so they can benefit with me from the eventual revenues of RCS once it is re-structured. We have valued RCS at 770 million euros, almost 700 million when you subtract the 90 million for the sale of RCS Libri (books arm) to Mondadori. That is twice as much as the stock-market capitalisation of (rival) group Espresso".