Hedge fund tycoon Marshall hires bankers to plot Daily Telegraph raid

Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund tycoon, has enlisted funding bankers to help a potential bid for The Daily Telegraph.

Sky News has learnt that Sir Paul, the co-founder of Marshall Wace and a giant shareholder within the right-wing tv news service GB News, has employed Moelis to advise him on the newspaper’s impending public sale.

Sources near Sir Paul, who additionally owns the political commentary platform UnHerd, mentioned he had not but made a agency choice about whether or not he would bid for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph titles alone, or whether or not he additionally deliberate to make a proposal for The Spectator, the present affairs journal.

The three distinguished media belongings have been put up on the market after Lloyds Banking Group seized management of them from the Barclay household, their long-standing house owners.

Sir Paul has been extensively rumoured to be excited by bidding, although the truth that he has employed bankers to advise him underlines the diploma of seriousness he’s attaching to the state of affairs.

He has an estimated fortune of £800m, based on The Sunday Times Rich List, based mostly on his huge success throughout an extended profession within the hedge fund business.

His appointment of advisers comes as bidders jockey for place forward of a proper public sale getting below method.

Sky News revealed final month that the Barclay household was lining up hundreds of millions of pounds from Middle Eastern traders in a bid to wrest again management of the newspapers from Lloyds.

The household has lodged a collection of proposals to purchase again roughly £1bn of debt it owes Lloyds Banking Group.

Sky News additionally revealed final month that Lord Rothermere, the Daily Mail proprietor, was speaking to Gulf-based traders about backing a proposal for the Telegraph titles.

A proper sale course of, run by the Wall Street financial institution Goldman Sachs, is predicted to kick off later this autumn.

The Barclay household’s newest supply underlines, nonetheless, its dedication to not completely lose management of the media group it took management of in 2004.

Lloyds had been locked in talks with the Barclays for years about refinancing loans made to them by HBOS previous to that financial institution’s rescue in the course of the 2008 banking disaster.

Until June, the newspapers had been chaired by Aidan Barclay – the nephew of Sir Frederick Barclay, the octogenarian who together with late brother Sir David engineered the takeover of the Telegraph 19 years in the past.

A supply mentioned this weekend that the Barclays had been adamant that their proposal to purchase again the Lloyds debt provided the financial institution a “clean” resolution that might avert any regulatory probe that may be triggered by one other media group shopping for the Telegraph.

A sale for £600m, or wherever near it, would set off a considerable writeback for Lloyds, which wrote down the worth of its loans to the Barclays a number of years in the past.

Nevertheless, a deal financed totally by abroad traders might set off different issues regarding media possession, significantly with the historically Conservative-supporting Telegraph titles being bought within the 12 months earlier than a basic election.

Charlie Nunn, Lloyds’ chief government, mentioned in the course of the summer time that he noticed no have to run “a rushed sale process”.

Other potential suitors for the Telegraph titles embrace National World, the regional newspaper writer headed by David Montgomery, the business veteran.

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In July, Telegraph Media Group (TMG) revealed full-year outcomes exhibiting pre-tax income had risen by a 3rd to about £39m in 2022.

A profitable digital subscriptions technique and “continued strong cost management” had been cited as causes for the corporate’s earnings progress.

“Our vision is to reach more paying readers than at any other time in our history, and we are firmly on track to achieve our one million subscriptions target in 2023 ahead of our year-end target,” mentioned Nick Hugh, TMG chief government.

The sale will probably be overseen by a brand new crop of administrators led by Mike McTighe, the boardroom veteran who chairs Openreach and IG Group, the monetary buying and selling agency.

Mr McTighe was lately named as chairman of Press Acquisitions and May Corporation, the respective mum or dad firms of TMG and The Spectator (1828), which publish the media titles.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Sir Paul declined to remark.