Telegraph Media Group set for sale after row with lenders
The Daily and Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator magazine are set to be put up for sale after talks between their owners and lenders collapsed.
It came after the Barclay family, the billionaire owners of the Telegraph Media Group, denied that the business could face administration.
It is understood that Lloyds Banking Group has appointed corporate finance advisory firm AlixPartners as official receivers for Press Acquisitions, the company controlled by the Barclays which owns the publications.
The lender will work with the receivers in a bid to secure the sale of the Telegraph and other titles to recover debts owed by the network of holding companies.
Sky News reported that advisers from Lazard will also oversee the proposed sale process.
Industry analysts have predicted the titles could be worth between £500 million and £600 million.
Irresponsible
The family said that “speculation about the business entering administration is unfounded and irresponsible” and insisted that the loans do not in any way affect the Telegraph Media Group.
A spokesman for the Barclay family said: “The loans in question are related to the family’s overarching ownership structure of its media assets.
“They do not, in any way, affect the operations or financial stability of Telegraph Media Group.”
The statement added that Telegraph Media Group continues to perform “extremely well” and the businesses in its portfolio “have no liability for any holding company liabilities, continue to operate as normal and are unaffected by issues in the holding company structure above them”.
Sir Frederick and his late twin brother Sir David Barclay, who died in 2021, bought the Telegraph newspapers in 2004 for £665 million.
Press Acquisitions is now run by Sir David’s son Aidan, with other interests owned by the family including courier Yodel and online retailer Very.
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I’m currently sitting in my garden in the sunshine reading this article but I don’t believe there will be ‘a day in the sun’ with the idea that the Torygraph is going bust. However, please allow me just five minutes to dream that this hate driven locomotive is about to plunge off the end of the tracks into the ravine below in a ball of fire a la ‘Back to the future 3’. What a vision in my minds’ eye. Total destruction and annihilation. The best dream I ever dreamt. Tell me it will be so.
Crowd fund the purchase price and turn it into a loo roll factory…
It already is a loo roll factory. I wouldn’t wipe MY butt with it though.