INDEPENDENT Newspapers has increased its stake in the Portuguese newspaper group Jornalgeste from 6.6 per cent to 11.8 per cent, and intends to increase its stake in the company to 20 per cent.

Independent first invested £5.9 million for a 6.6 per cent stake in Jornalgeste, a price that reflected a premium for entry into the Portuguese market. The additional shares, which bring Independent up to 11.8 per cent were bought at a cost of around £2.5 million.

Since Independent first invested in Jornalgeste, the company has increased circulation of its two flagship titles, with sales of the Oporto Journal de Noticias up 15 per cent and the Lisbon Diario de Noticias up 14 per cent.

Meanwhile, Independents Wilson & Horton subsidiary may be facing stiff competition from the British GWR Group for the chain of radio stations being sold off by the New Zealand government.

This week, GWR bought Brierley Investments radio offshoot for almost £10 million sterling and stated it was a contender for The Radio Company, the New Zealand government's radio network. This is expected to fetch about 50 million New Zealand dollars (about £19 million) when it is sold.

A new company, New Zealand Radio Network, has already been set up to bid for the state network, and is jointly owned by Wilson & Horton and Australia Radio Network, a radio company which is itself jointly owned by Australian Provincial Newspapers (APN) and Clear Channel Communications.

APN is an Australian company in which the O'Reilly/Independent interests own 48 per cent of the shares.