Telegraph Media Group and The Spectator launch separate sale processes

20 October 2023 , 14:14

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The Telegraph could fetch about £500 million from the sale. (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

The Telegraph Media Group and The Spectator magazine are up for grabs, with the sale process now underway to find new owners.

This long-anticipated sale of one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups has already attracted a lot of interest from potential buyers.

On Friday, the board of the parent companies behind the Telegraph and Spectator confirmed that their advisers had kicked off separate sale processes for each business. Goldman Sachs is believed to be overseeing the sale.

Industry experts reckon that the Telegraph could fetch about £500 million from the sale. This comes four months after AlixPartners, specialists in restructuring, were brought in as receivers for the business by its previous owners, the billionaire Barclay brothers.

Lloyds, the bank of the brothers, hired the receivers to manage and help oversee the sale of the business to pay back debts from failed loans from the bank, which total more than £1 billion.

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The two businesses, which will be sold separately, have reportedly received up to 20 expressions of interest. Earlier this month, the Barclay brothers tried a last-ditch effort to repay their debts and regain control with backing from investors based in Abu-Dhabi, but this was unsuccessful.

Hedge fund millionaire and GB News investor Sir Paul Marshall, Daily Mail publisher DMGT, Yorkshire Post owner National World and German publisher Axel Springer have all been linked with a deal for the Telegraph.

Meanwhile, DMGT and Rupert Murdoch's News UK are both reportedly interested in a move for The Spectator.

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PA Deputy Business Editor