THG PLC (LSE:THG), the owner of the Hut Group, MyProtein and Zavvi.com, is reported to be in talks to buy business-focused newspaper City AM, which was put up for sale earlier this month.
A sale is expected via a pre-pack deal, allowing the online retailer, which rejected a private equity bid itself earlier this year, to agree terns before administrators are brought in.
The 17-year-old newspaper was put on the market this month by its owners, of which chief executive Jens Torpe and managing director Lawson Muncaster own 50%, with the rest owned by a pair of Nettherlands based investors.
THG currently owns two online publications.
City AM last said it has an online readership between 1.8-2mln per month and print circulation of 67,714.