UTV Media’s share price looks as if it has “bombed out” and hit the low point following a difficult year, a leading Belfast analyst said today.

Sam Brown, divisional director at Rensburg Sheppards stockbrokers, was speaking after venture capital group TVC Holdings increased its stake in UTV |to 15%.

The Belfast-based group’s share price, which had plummeted by 68% over the past year, rallied slightly following last week’s announcement by TVC.

The price was up by 6p on last Thursday to 123p, which equates to a market capitalisation of £70.78m.

“These are interesting times for UTV Media and clearly TVC thinks there is value to be secured in the longer term,” Mr Brown commented.

“They reckon the share price has hit the bottom and the stock does look bombed out.

“Significantly, the price at which shares are trading now is below the value of 130p at which they were put on offer to shareholders in the recent rights issue.

“UTV has been hit by the cutback in advertising budgets and there are difficult times ahead, but one always has to take a long view when looking at any company,” he added.

TVC took two bites at UTV Media last week and with a 15% stake, is now the largest single shareholder in the company, the last major plc to be based in Northern Ireland.

UTV said last week that only 41.5% of investors who held |the right to subscribe took up their allocation, aimed at raising £49.9m to pay down its £107.2m debt.

The joint underwriters of the fundraising — Numis and Goodbody Stockbrokers - were left holding the rest.

TVC, whose executive chairman is Shane Reihill and chief executive John Tracey, paid a |total of £19.5m to build its stake in UTV.

A statement from TVC read: “This investment reflects TVC Holdings' stated investment |strategy of acquiring significant stakes in both public and private companies across a range of sectors, principally in the UK and Ireland.”

TVC maintained that it believed UTV was “undervalued” by the market.

The company, which floated a year ago, also has a stakes in publicly quoted company, Norkom Group and the Quality and Comfort Inn hotel chains.

TVC also has 11 other investments, mainly in the software |industry.

The UTV investment is the equivalent of 20% of TVC's net assets, after minority interests, as at the end of last March.