Sunday 05 February 2017 5:41 pm

Boss of troubled newspaper group Johnston Press set for meeting with activist investor

The under-pressure chief executive of newspaper group Johnston Press is preparing for talks with activist investor Crystal Amber, which recently became the company’s biggest shareholder.

Ashley Highfield expects to meet the investor shortly, with chief financial officer David King, after a trading update at the end of last week.

Johnston Press’ share price, which is down nearly 60 per cent in the last year, jumped by more than eight per cent to 17p after the trading update on Friday. The company, which publishes the i newspaper, Yorkshire Post and Scotsman, reported a one per cent increase in revenue in the fourth quarter to 31 December, up from a five per cent drop in the third.

Highfield’s future has been the subject of speculation in recent weeks, with Crystal Amber having built up its stake to 20 per cent and arranged a meeting with the company’s chair interim chair, Camilla Rhodes.

“Our chairman has met them recently, that’s in the public domain” Highfield told City A.M. “And that was a constructive meeting. And no doubt David and I will go and see them now the trading update is out. We’ll get a meeting in the diary to go and see them as we would all of our key shareholders.”

Asked how he felt about the speculation around his future, Highfield said: “We’ve got to be pretty thick-skinned to work in this industry. The publishing industry is a tough industry and I would expect to take the knocks and get on with it.

“I’m not letting it stop me from focusing on what needs to be done and I’m not losing sleep over it. On the flipside, I do take seriously what our key shareholders say.”