The Barclay family has tabled an offer valuing the Telegraph newspaper group at £1bn in an attempt to deter rival bidders from challenging them before the imminent auction of the influential publications.
The family has secured financing from investors based in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, after talks that began in August.
The Barclays acquired the Daily and Sunday Telegraph as well as the Spectator in 2004 but Lloyds bank took control of them in June after the family failed to reach agreement over more than £1bn in unpaid debt.
The offer is the latest to be tabled by the family, which last month proposed a deal valuing Telegraph Media Group (TMG) at £725m, in an attempt to kill off an auction process due to be started by the bankers Goldman Sachs imminently.
The latest offer, first reported by Sky News, represents an eye-watering multiple on the £39m profits TMG reported in its most recent results, underscoring the family’s determination to regain control of the titles.
The move is reminiscent of the blockbuster £665m that Sir Frederick and his late twin brother, Sir David, were willing to pay to gain control of the newspapers in 2004, when they showed their willingness to pay a massive premium to knock out their rival Axel Springer, the German media group that owns titles including the tabloid Bild and the national daily Die Welt.
The family will hope that the scale of the offer will cause some potential rival bidders to reassess entering the formal process. However, to date Lloyds has resisted multiple proposals tabled by the Barclays, and the bank has been keen to see what value might be placed on an influential media asset such as the Telegraph in an open auction.
The bank is likely to ask the Barclays – who are understood to have brought onboard the banker Ken Costa, who advised them when they triumphed in 2004 – for proof of funding.
The ultimate source of the Barclays’ funding is unclear, but members of the Abu Dhabi ruling family including Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the ultimate owner of a controlling stake in Manchester City football club, are reported to be involved in the talks, according to Sky News.
Other potential bidders include Axel Springer, which lost out to the Japanese conglomerate Nikkei in the takeover battle of the Financial Times in 2015, the Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere, and Sir Paul Marshall, the founder of the London-based hedge fund Marshall Wace and a minority investor in GB News. Marshall is forming a consortium that includes the US hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin.
Any deal to buy the Telegraph is likely to draw close scrutiny from the UK government and regulators such as Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority, including a public interest test and, potentially, plurality and competition investigations, depending on who wins the auction.
The Barclay family and Lloyds bank declined to comment.
