Daily Mail chief to pay £35m for Telegraph stake

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. 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. However, it faces continued opposition from parliamentarians.

Read more from Sky News:'Leicester is embargoed': City's clothing industry in crisisWater company hit with largest-ever fine issued by Ofwat 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. 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..