The owner of the Daily Mail is to pay more than £30m for a minority stake in rival right-leaning newspaper The Daily Telegraph as the latter’s prospective owners assemble a consortium of strategic backers.
Sky News has learnt that Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail and General Trust is to fork out just under £35m for a shareholding of about 10% in the Telegraph titles, implying an equity value of roughly £350m.
Banking sources said that Goldman Sachs had been enlisted to provide advice to DMGT on the investment.
A deal is expected to be struck imminently, according to insiders.
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RedBird Capital, the US-based investment firm, confirmed last week that it was exercising an option to take majority control of the newspapers, with Abu Dhabi state-backed vehicle IMI expected to acquire the maximum 15% stake permitted under proposed new media ownership rules.
The government’s decision to set the ownership threshold at 15% follows an intensive lobbying campaign by newspaper industry executives concerned that a permanent outright ban could cut off a vital source of funding to an already-embattled industry.
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However, it faces continued opposition from parliamentarians.
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Dovid Efune, owner of The New York Sun, is meanwhile continuing to assemble a rival bid for the Telegraph, having secured backing from Jeremy Hosking, the prominent City investor.
RedBird IMI paid £600m in 2023 to acquire a call option that was intended to convert into ownership of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator magazine.
That objective was thwarted by a change in media ownership laws – which banned any form of foreign state ownership.
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The Spectator was then sold last year for £100m to Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund billionaire, who has installed Lord Gove, the former cabinet minister, as its editor.
DMGT did not respond to a request for comment.
