A FORMER Tory chancellor is reportedly assembling a £600 million bid for the Daily Telegraph.
According to Sky News, Nadhim Zahawi, who left Parliament in May after opting not to stand as an MP again, has approached a number of billionaire backers about helping to finance an offer for the newspaper, its Sunday title and The Spectator.
The former Cabinet minister, who also spent time as business secretary, education secretary and as the government's vaccines minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, is said to believe the Telegraph has significant scope to boost its profitability by expanding in the US.
Zahawi – who has extensive business relationship in the Middle East – is not yet thought to have submitted a formal offer but is said to be confident of securing sufficient financing firepower to table a competitive bid.
While the identity of some of Zahawi’s prospective backers is unclear, City sources said the Reuben family had been approached who own a huge number of property assets and have a stake in Newcastle United Football Club.
An initial bid deadline on Friday is understood to have seen a string of provisional offers for the Telegraph titles, The Spectator, or both.
The takeover of the newspaper, its Sunday title and The Spectator magazine has been up in the air after the Daily Mail publisher ruled out a bid.
Last year, previous owners the Barclay family were forced to put the media group up for sale in order to repay debts to lenders at Lloyds Bank.
Zahawi played a pivotal role in the Telegraph Media Group sale to investment fund RedBird IMI.
He is now said to be conducting talks directly with International Media Investments (IMI), a vehicle which holds the majority of RedBird IMI.
RedBird IMI paid roughly £600 million to purchase the business and agreed to take on £600m of related debt in December.
However just months later in April, the Abu Dhabi-backed fund said they would sell the Telegraph citing government intervention after the Conservative government said it would stop foreign governments from owning British newspapers.
National World, the London-listed media group, and Lord Saatchi, the former advertising guru, are among those who are understood to have also lodged offers for the newspapers.
