Sir David Arculus accused the board of Emap of having “lost its way” while speaking out about his plans to oust Alun Cathcart, the group’s executive chairman, and take the helm himself should the £2 billion sale of the media giant fail.

Sir David, Emap’s managing director until 1997, said that the firm retained strong divisional managers, but he attacked the board’s decision to break up the company.

“It upsets me to see a great business like Emap broken up,” Sir David said. “There is a strong management team at divisional level, but the board has lost its way and doesn’t really understand media . . . I am giving shareholders an alternative and there are a lot of forward-looking shareholders”.

Emap said yesterday that efforts to break up the group had the full backing of shareholders. The announcement of the review met with very widespread support. Not a single shareholder demurred,” an Emap spokesman said.

Before the announcement of Emap’s strategic review in July, a group of shareholders lined up Sir David to assume the role of chairman.

Sir David said last night that he had been originally responsible for the appointment of Derek Carter, the head of Emap’s business-to-business division, and Paul Keenan, who leads the group’s consumer unit. He said that he would want to hold on to these divisional heads if his plan proved successful.

Sir David’s plan was presented in July to Mr Cathcart and David Rough, the senior independent director. Mr Cathcart announced plans for a strategic review days later, although Emap insisted that the move had not been provoked by this approach.

Sources close to company suggested last night that Sir David had been working on a bid for Emap’s consumer magazines and radio division by Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, which later failed.

After leaving Emap in 1997, Sir David chaired IPC Media, the rival magazine publisher, and Severn Trent, the water company. He now sits on the board of Pearson, owner of the Financial Times.

Mr Cathcart has been running Emap, which owns such magazines as FHM and Closer, since May when Tom Moloney, the chief executive, left.

Second-round bids for Emap’s three divisions are due in mid-November. Emap is working through indicative bids from a range of private equity and trade players ahead of second-round bids. The company has said that it would update the market on November 13.

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