Underwriters to SMG’s £95m rights issue could be forced to mop up millions of unwanted shares if the share price of the Scottish media group does not recover in the next two-and-a-half weeks.

A month ago, SMG, which owns Virgin Radio and the Scottish ITV franchises, announced a 2-for-1 rights issue, wholly underwritten by Hoare Govett, at 15p, at the time a steep discount to the company’s price of 26½p.