Wanted: Buyer for the Daily Telegraph, a 150-Year-Old British Newspaper
Summary
- Parent company of the politically influential broadsheet has been placed into receivership
The Daily Telegraph, a more than 150-year-old, politically influential British newspaper, has effectively been put up for sale after its parent company entered a form of insolvency proceedings.
The move could offer a rare chance to buy a trophy asset with strong ties to the ruling Conservative Party, while signaling the further erosion of the business empire of the Barclay family, once one of Britain’s richest clans.
Lloyds Banking Group placed B.UK, a Bermuda-based holding company that ultimately controls the Telegraph newspapers and political magazine the Spectator, into receivership this week. The lender said it took the action as an “act of last resort" in a bid to recover debt owed by B.UK’s owner.
That debt stands at around £1 billion, equivalent to about $1.24 billion, a person familiar with the matter said.
AlixPartners, the restructuring firm appointed by the bank to oversee the process, said it had secured control of the media assets to facilitate a resolution, which “may involve sales of the Telegraph and Spectator businesses." It added that the bank remains willing to engage in further talks with B.UK’s owner.
B.UK itself is ultimately controlled by the Barclay family.
A spokesperson for the Barclay family said the loans in question relate to the overarching ownership structure of its media assets and “do not, in any way, affect the operations or financial stability of Telegraph Media Group."
They added that TMG is performing well, with more than 750,000 subscribers.
The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, together with the Spectator, are widely seen as influential among Conservative Party members and lawmakers. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was previously a reporter and columnist at the right-leaning paper, and other big Tory party names are frequent contributors.
In its last publicly filed accounts, TMG reported operating profit of £33.3 million in 2021, up from £26.7 million the year before.
Any sale of the newspaper, founded in 1855, could generate wide interest. Britain has fewer restrictions on overseas buyers acquiring media assets than the U.S., potentially widening the field of potential suitors.
Several of Britain’s most storied media names are owned from abroad, including the Financial Times, owned by Japan’s Nikkei, and the Times of London, which like the publisher of The Wall Street Journal is owned by U.S.-based News Corp.
Founded by identical twins David and Frederick Barclay, the Barclay family’s rags-to-riches story and once-inseparable relationship ended in a highly public legal battle that featured a spying scandal and a squabble over the sale of London’s storied Ritz hotel.
David died in 2021, and Frederick’s side of the family now has a minority interest in the business, leaving David’s sons to steward holdings that are now based around a parcel delivery group and the media assets. The Ritz hotel was sold in 2020.
The parcel-delivery business, Yodel, has had a difficult recent history with several years of losses, while newspapers around the world aren’t as profitable as when the Barclays bought the Telegraph in 2004.
—Margot Patrick contributed to this article.
Write to Alistair MacDonald at Alistair.Macdonald@wsj.com
