Global Radio has agreed on a price to acquire GCap Media, after four months of negotiations.

GCap claimed to own almost 30 per cent of the UK radio advertising market and the new deal is set to take Global's market share up to almost 50 per cent.

Charles Allen, chairman of Global Radio said: “We are delighted that the Board of GCap has unanimously agreed to recommend our acquisition of GCap. We believe that this is a very strong business with brands and assets that are highly complementary to those of the Global Radio Group.  We are excited by the opportunity to build on GCap’s position as the leading commercial radio player and are committed to providing the best platform for both our advertisers and listeners.”

GCap owns 47 regional stations, including XFM, Trent FM, Buzz 97.1,  and Leicester Sound. In February, it announced a cost-cutting exercise that is understood to have led to several redundancies.