DMGT to buy Daily Telegraph for £500m as regulator review looms
Britain’s Daily Mail owner DMGT confirms talks to acquire the Daily Telegraph titles from RedBird IMI for about £500 million, subject to government scrutiny.
British publisher DMGT has agreed in principle to acquire the Daily Telegraph and its sister Sunday Telegraph for about £500 million, a deal that would bring the nationally important broadsheet into DMGT’s growing media stable.
The buyer, DMGT, is teaming up with RedBird IMI, a joint venture between the United Arab Emirates and RedBird Capital Partners. RedBird IMI’s own bid for the Telegraph previously faltered, adding a layer of complexity to the deal now moving forward.
Any agreement will require approval from the government, with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy expected to review the deal under the public-interest and foreign-state influence media mergers regimes before it can proceed.
DMGT and RedBird IMI said they expect the deal to move quickly through the process after agreeing terms and roadmap for submission to the secretary of state.
DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere said he has long admired the Telegraph and stressed that the deal would bring “much-needed certainty and confidence” to Telegraph staff. He praised the paper as Britain’s leading quality broadsheet with a storied history that has helped shape national debate for decades.
He added that Chris Evans is an excellent editor and that DMGT intends to back the newsroom with resources. “Under our ownership, the Daily Telegraph will become a global brand, just as the Daily Mail has,” he said.
The Telegraph would join DMGT’s other media brands, including the i Paper, Metro, New Scientist, alongside the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, while the Telegraph would remain editorially independent from DMGT’s other titles.
The group emphasised that the case for the deal would comply with UK rules, noting there would be no foreign state investment or foreign capital in the funding structure.
A RedBird IMI spokesman said the parties had acted swiftly to reach the agreement and that the package would be submitted to the secretary of state in due course.
Reaction from UK politicians reflected ongoing concerns about media concentration. Liberal Democrat Lords’ business spokesperson Chris Fox welcomed the move as a potential step toward resolving Telegraph uncertainty but warned about concentrating agenda-setting power in a few hands and urged regulators to scrutinise the terms carefully to avoid an unbalanced media market for consumers and competitors.
RedBird Capital’s involvement in the Telegraph has a bruising history. The group pulled its bid after facing political and regulatory scrutiny tied to Abu Dhabi’s investment arm, with the 15% foreign-sovereign investment cap shaping the debate. RedBird’s bid was also said to have faced newsroom pushback toward the deal, even as the company argued it would pass government review in time.
Gerry Cardinale, founder of RedBird, had signalled ambitions to broaden the Telegraph’s US reach and subscriber base, including views of tapping the American market. RedBird’s portfolio also includes Italy’s AC Milan football club, among other investments.
Telegraph ownership has been in limbo for more than two years since RedBird IMI’s debt-clearing move unsettled the paper’s ownership question, paving the way for renewed interest in its future direction.
The deal, if approved, would mark a notable shift in UK media ownership and a reaffirmation of DMGT’s strategy to diversify its portfolio across print and digital platforms.
Key insight: A potential DMGT acquisition of the Daily Telegraph signals a major reshaping of UK media ownership, contingent on government approval and regulatory review. Source: BBC News
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