The publisher of the Daily Mail has agreed to buy the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for £500 million, marking the latest development in a long-running ownership battle. Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said it has entered a period of discussion with RedBird IMI, a joint venture between the United Arab Emirates and U.S. private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners.
Deal Requires Government Approval
The acquisition requires sign-off from Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. A spokesperson for Nandy said she will “review any new buyer acquiring the Telegraph in line with the public interest and foreign state influence media mergers regimes.”
The Telegraph’s future has been uncertain for more than two years. The RedBird IMI consortium paid off debts owed by the previous owners, the Barclay family, intending to take ownership. That plan collapsed last week after RedBird Capital’s own bid fell through.
Political Reaction and Calls for Clarity
Dame Caroline Dineage, chair of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said she was “keen to see a resolution to the uncertainty that’s hampered the Telegraph for years,” while emphasising the importance of media plurality. She said the situation has been “unsustainable for the business and unsettling for staff,” and urged the government to state its position early next week.
She added that the committee has largely stayed out of the discussions because takeovers fall under the government’s quasi-judicial responsibilities.
DMGT’s Position on the Acquisition
DMGT and RedBird IMI said they expect the deal to be finalised quickly. DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere said he has “long admired the Daily Telegraph” and believes the purchase will provide “much-needed certainty and confidence” for its employees. He described the Telegraph as “Britain’s largest and best quality broadsheet newspaper” and said it has played a significant role in national debate over decades.
Rothermere added that editor Chris Evans would receive resources to invest in the newsroom and said that under DMGT, the Telegraph would become a global brand similar to the Daily Mail.
The deal would place the Telegraph within DMGT’s media portfolio, which includes the i Paper, Metro, New Scientist, the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. DMGT said the Telegraph would remain editorially independent from its other titles and argued that the acquisition complies with UK rules, noting there would be no foreign state investment in the funding structure.
A spokesperson for RedBird IMI said the agreement will be submitted to the secretary of state shortly.
Concerns Over Media Concentration
Chris Fox, Liberal Democrat Lords spokesperson for business, said the move towards resolving the Telegraph’s uncertainty should be considered. However, he expressed scepticism about “concentrating so much agenda-setting power in the hands of so few,” and called on the competition regulator to examine the terms to avoid creating a more unbalanced media market.
RedBird Capital’s Withdrawn Bid
RedBird Capital withdrew from its own attempt to buy the Telegraph last week. The firm’s earlier bid had been blocked due to majority funding from Abu Dhabi’s IMI group, owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family. A new law now caps foreign sovereign wealth fund ownership at 15% in UK newspapers.
RedBird’s subsequent bid complied with the rule, but sources said the government planned to refer the deal for regulatory review. People close to RedBird said they believed the bid would have passed government scrutiny but pointed to negative coverage from the Telegraph newsroom as a factor in the decision to pull out.
RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale had intended to expand the Telegraph’s presence and subscriber base in the U.S., aiming to fill what he viewed as a gap in the market. The company holds other investments, including ownership of Italian football club AC Milan.
Featured image credits: Wikimedia Commons
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