LONDON – The Telegraph, one of Britain’s oldest and most influential newspapers, is back on the block after UAE-backed investment group RedBird IMI officially walked away from its proposed takeover, following a political furor.

RedBird IMI said on April 30 that it would sell on the rights to the Telegraph, as well as the Spectator magazine, reigniting a media battle for control of two publications that are famously intertwined with the upper echelons of the Conservative party. 

The Spectator is the world’s oldest weekly magazine still in print, while the Daily Telegraph dates back to 1855 and claims the scoop for the outbreak of World War II.

The publications came into play last summer when Lloyds Banking Group seized assets of the Barclay family, who owed £1.2 billion (S$2 billion). The lender kicked off an auction, but in December, the Barclays repaid the debt with a loan from RedBird IMI – a joint venture between RedBird Capital Partners and UAE Deputy Prime Minister Mansour Zayed Al Nahyan’s IMI.

Former CNN chief Jeff Zucker planned to take over the Telegraph as part of the deal, but the move was scuppered by Tory politicians who feared there was a threat of a foreign state influencing a British newspaper.

RedBird IMI has brought in New York-based investment bank Raine Group to help run a sale alongside London-based boutique Robey Warshaw. 

Here are some of the likely bidders.

Jonathan Harmsworth

Daily Mail proprietor and chairman Jonathan Harmsworth, also known as Lord Rothermere, is thought to be circling. Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) bid for the Telegraph in 2004 and has explored approaches in recent years, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Telegraph outsourced its print advertising to the group in 2021. For a deal to be approved by antitrust regulators, DMGT would likely have to argue its mid-market newspapers target a different audience to the Telegraph.

Daniel Kretinsky

Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky joined 2023’s auction for the Telegraph before RedBird IMI pounced.

Mr Kretinsky, whose interests stretch from power plants to retail, is a minority shareholder in the French TV channel TF1, and also owns various magazines, including the French edition of Elle.

In Britain, he owns stakes in grocer J Sainsbury and Royal Mail owner International Distributions Services, which recently rejected a full takeover bid from the entrepreneur.

Paul Marshall

Hedge fund manager Paul Marshall – a strong advocate of Brexit – has written polemics in the Telegraph and funded the opinion commentary website UnHerd, which occupies offices on the same Westminster street as the Spectator.

He has also backed right-wing TV start-up GB News, whose initial founding chair was Spectator Chairman Andrew Neil.

The founding partner and chief investment officer of hedge fund Marshall Wace LLP has discussed with Citadel founder Ken Griffin the possibility of financial backing to take over the Telegraph Media Group, people familiar with the matter have said.

David Montgomery

National World, run by media veteran David Montgomery, has called itself the “best qualified” bidder for the Telegraph in a statement after the British government effectively blocked the RedBird IMI takeover.

National World – Mr Montgomery’s latest listed vehicle – owns more than a hundred regional titles in Britain, including The Scotsman, Yorkshire Post and other British local newspapers. Montgomery, a former chief executive of the Mirror Group, argued that the bid would be unaffected by competition issues.

Rupert Murdoch

News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch has coveted the Spectator for decades, and has previously bid for it, Bloomberg reported in 2023.

It would be trickier for Mr Murdoch to acquire the much larger Telegraph Media Group, which overlaps in the premium segment of the conservative press with his British papers – the Times and Sunday Times – which he owns along with the Sun tabloid.

If involved, the media tycoon is likely to remain focused solely on the Spectator. BLOOMBERG