Five groups are understood to have submitted formal bids for the Belfast Telegraph and associated titles to its owners, Trinity Mirror. The newspapers are expected to fetch more than £250 million sterling (€409.3 million).
The bidders are believed to include Independent News & Media, Guardian Media, United States media group Gannett, Regional Independent Media and a venture capital-backed management buyout group.
A spokesman for the Trinity Mirror group said the sale process is going well but refused to confirm the number of bidders. The bids will be considered by Trinity and it is expected that a deal could be concluded within two months.
The Belfast Telegraph is Northern Ireland's biggest selling newspaper and is said to be hugely profitable.
Independent is understood to have made its bid through its British subsidiary and includes a local board of directors made up of Independent executives and prominent local politicians and businessmen. Its bid has recently run into opposition from Unionists who say its potential takeover of the newspaper would constitute unfair competition.
The Ulster Unionist Parliamentary Party has met with the British Trade and Industry Secretary, Mr Stephen Byers to discuss its opposition. It claims a take-over by Independent would create a monopoly of daily, evening and Sunday newspapers on an all-Ireland basis.
Trinity Mirror, created from the merger last year of Trinity International and Mirror Group, was given a year last September to sell the Belfast Telegraph and three other titles - Sunday Life, Community Telegraph and Farm Trader. The merger meant Trinity Mirror owned both unionist newspapers, the News Letter and the Telegraph and the British Department of Trade and Industry decided it was the Telegraph that should be sold. Trinity is permitted to retain a 19.9 per cent stake if it wishes but is not expected to do so.
If the Independent bid is successful, its local board will include the chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party, Lord Rogan, Lady Moira Quigley, wife of Ulster Bank chairman Sir George Quigley, Ms Berna McIvor, election agent for SDLP leader Mr John Hume, businessman and former rugby international Mr Trevor Ringland and the director-general of the Northern Ireland arm of the Confederation of British Industry, Mr Chris Gibson.
Rival bidder Gannett is the biggest newspaper group in the US and prints 75 daily titles, including USA Today, as well as having 21 television stations and cable operations. Guardian Media publishes the Guardian, the Observer and the Manchester Evening News. The main title of Regional Independent Media is the Yorkshire Post. The management buy-out group is headed by Belfast Telegraph chief executive Mr Derek Carvill.
