Belgian publishing house De Persgroep, which owns the Volkskrant, Trouw and Parool newspapers, is taking over Britain’s Mecom publishers – which owns Dutch company Wegener and Media Group Limburg.

According to Mecom’s website, De Persgroep is paying €245m for Mecom – or 155 pence per share, the Financieele Dagblad says.

The deal will give De Persgroep some of the biggest Dutch regional papers, including the Stentor, the Gelderlander, the Twentsche Courant Tubantia, and the Brabants Dagblad, as well as the Limburger and Limburgs Dagblad.

Mecom also has a stake in Dutch housing website funda.nl, several websites and interests in Danish papers.

De Persgroep had earlier indicated it is interested in taking over NRC Media, which has been put up for sale by its private equity owners. De Persgroep became the owner of the NRC in 2010 when it took over PCM. The NRC was then sold to a private equity company on the orders of the Dutch competition authority.