The Takeover Panel today ordered Global Radio, the privately-owned company headed by former ITV chief Charles Allen, to "put up or shut up" on making an offer for GCap, Britain's largest commercial radio group, after making an approach earlier this month.

Global Radio now has until 5pm on March 5 to decide whether or not to make a bid for GCap, which today reported third quarter like-for-like revenues up 4 per cent. Global Radio made a £300 million indicative offer for GCap in early January, just weeks after Fru Hazlitt replaced Ralph Bernard as chief executive at the media group.

Ms Hazlitt, the former chief executive at Virgin Radio, is set to reveal her new strategy for GCap on February 11, before the Takeover Panel-imposed deadline.

Shares in GCap, which have fallen by 41 per cent over the past year, rebounded today, rising 5.1 per cent to 185p to value the group at £304 million, and compares with the 190p of Global Radio's indicative bid. GCap revealed it had made a strong start to the year, with January sales expected to reach 7 per cent while radio advertising increased by 7 per cent. Total revenues for December rose by 9 per cent.

Capital 95.8 failed to grow its share of the London market at 4.7 per cent, behind Heart with a 6.2 per cent hold and Magic 105.4, previously owned by Emap and bought by Germany's Bauer with 6.1 per cent.

In the battle of the London breakfast shows, Capital lost out to Heart’s Jamie Theakston and Harriet Scott, who had 915,000 listeners between 6am and 9am.

Capital’s Johnny Vaughan was in second place with 864,000 listeners between 6am and 9am but GCap repeated its plans to bring in Denise van Outen to join Mr Vaughan on the breakfast show on 4 February. Mr Vaughan and Ms van Outen had a successful partnership co-presenting Channel Four's Big Breakfast in the 1990s.

The BBC continued to show its dominance over commercial radio, with the Rajar figures showing that the commercial sector’s slice of the radio market was down to 42.4 per cent, down 1.2 per cent year-on-year.

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