Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital Partners has reached an agreement to buy the UK’s Telegraph Media Group.
The in-principle agreement values the publisher of The Telegraph at £500M ($675M) and will see the U.S.-based RedBird becoming the sole owner of the paper and its associated businesses.
The Abu Dhabi-funded RedBird IMI will take a minority stake providing new legislation around foreign ownership thresholds passes into law. RedBird IMI previously had a deal in place to acquire the Telegraph and The Spectator but was stopped when the British government changed the law to block foreign ownership.
RedBird claims this will be the largest investment in UK print media in a decade and will unlock a “new era of growth” for the 170-year-old titles.
Cardinale and his team have long chased the Telegraph, but an earlier an earlier attempt to buy it through All3Media owner RedBird IMI, which is majority controlled out of the Middle East, was blocked by the former Conservative Party.
RedBird IMI had effectively assumed ownership of the Telegraph after it stepped in to pay the debts of the Barclay family, which previously owned the paper. However, the government ruled RedBird IMI had to sell the asset over fears about press freedoms and RedBird IMI then began sales process. RedBird has a minority stake in RedBird IMI, but it is primarily owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President of the United Arab Emirates.
RedBird said it is in discussions with “select UK-based minority investors with print media expertize and strong commitment to upholding the editorial values of The Telegraph.”
More follows…
The post RedBird Secures $675M Deal To Buy UK’s Daily Telegraph appeared first on Deadline.
