Shares in SMG surged more than 10% yesterday in a small but welcome comeback after the Glasgow-based Scottish media group revealed plans to buy back up to £30m of stock through a tender offer.

Shares in SMG surged more than 10% yesterday in a small but welcome comeback after the Glasgow-based Scottish media group revealed plans to buy back up to £30m of stock through a tender offer.

The company also said that after the tender offer was completed, it planned to effect a share consolidation and to change its name to stv Group, taking as its overall corporate identity the brand name of its television subsidiary, which encompasses the central and north of Scotland ITV franchises - formerly STV and Grampian - as well as SMG's production business.

It said it planned to return the funds that were surplus to its operational requirements. The move is expected to result in the return of between 200 million and 333 million "old" shares.

Under the terms of the buyback scheme, which has come about because SMG now has surplus funds following its rights issue and disposal of Virgin Radio and other units, shareholders can tender their stock at 9p to 15p a share.

It said the buy-back "gives small shareholders the opportunity to liquidate their entire holdings of SMG shares".

Meanwhile, the City yesterday expressed relief and SMG shares climbed 15.6% to 11.5p - still far from its highs above 350p in 2000.

The company, which struggled to attract acceptable offers for its Virgin Radio business, launched a rights issue in November 2007 to raise £95.1m to slash debt.

Then, in June, it offloaded Virgin to the Times of India Group for £53.2m cash. Last year SMG sold outdoor advertising business Primesight.