Paul Godfrey, the chief executive of CanWest's flagship National Post newspaper, pictured here in 2007, has lined up financial backers to bid on the media goliath's Canadian newspaper chain, local media said Friday.

The chief executive of CanWest's flagship National Post newspaper has lined up financial backers to bid on the media goliath's Canadian newspaper chain, local media said Friday.

Paul Godfrey, former chief executive of Sun Media and the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, has secured private equity to finance a management-led buyout of the struggling newspapers, said the daily Globe and Mail.

The 12 Canadian newspapers are to be put up for auction in the coming months and could fetch up to one billion Canadian dollars (925 million US), amid a CanWest Global Communications Corporation restructuring, the daily said.

Godfrey, who in 1996 led a management buyout of the Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation -- now Sun Media -- that proved wildly successful for its backers, was not immediately available for comment.

CanWest spokesman John Dougla said: "It is not surprising that there is interest in the Canwest publishing group as it has consistently out-performed the industry and its brands dominate their markets like no other."

"However, any suggestions that they are up for sale is pure speculation," he told AFP.

According to the Globe and Mail, CanWest's lenders, who are owed 2.5 billion (2.3 billion US), would end up controlling its 12 dailies in a debt for equity swap and sell them.

The Asper family, heirs to the founder of the media empire, meanwhile, would lose control of CanWest, the paper said.

© 2009 AFP