Front page, The Daily Telegraph, 14/07/2014
London The newspaper group Telegraph Media Group (TMG) is for sale. After the previous owner family Barclay could not agree with Lloyds Bank on the repayment of an old loan of allegedly around one billion pounds (1.16 billion euros), the law firm Alix Partners, which was appointed as receiver, wants the media house, which includes the daily newspaper ” The Telegraph” also owns the conservative magazine “The Spectator” for forced sale.
Alix Partners said on Wednesday afternoon that changes to the boards of certain B.UK Limited subsidiaries, including TMG and The Spectator, had been initiated “to secure control of the assets… and to facilitate a solution which the sale of the Telegraph and Spectator divisions.” Aidan Barclay is said to have already been replaced as the responsible head of the newspaper group, British media reported.
One of the most important conservative voices in the British press landscape is changing hands. The brothers Frederik and David Barclay took over the newspaper group in 2004 from the US publisher Hollinger International for the equivalent of around 1.5 billion euros. At the time, Axel Springer Verlag was also interested in the Telegraph Group. The remainder of the loan taken out when buying Barclays later ended up with Lloyds Bank, which is now insisting on a repayment.
The newspaper group was most recently controlled by the Bermuda-based B.UK umbrella company, which was placed under receivership at the insistence of the bankers.
Lloyds is said to have already written off the outstanding loan and could therefore book the proceeds from the sale as an extraordinary profit. Analysts put the newspaper group’s value at between £500m and £700m.
In London, both investors from the Arab world and the British media group DMGT with the title “Daily Mail” are mentioned as possible interested parties. Springer could also dare a new approach. The media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch is said to be interested in the influential magazine title “The Spectator”.
Family quarrel leads to decline
The Barclay family has been rocked by arguments since David Barclay’s death in 2021. “The loans in question are related to the ownership structure of the family’s media assets,” a spokesman for the Barclay family said, “and they in no way affect the operations or financial stability of TMG.”
The Telegraph Media Group generated sales of £245 million with pre-tax profits of just under £30 million in the past financial year. Both were well above the previous year’s level. The Telegraph together with the Sunday Telegraph has more than 750,000 subscribers.
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