As he took to the stage in New York to address the Algemeiner Journal’s annual gala last year, Dovid Efune was in a resolute mood.
Fewer than two weeks had passed since the October 7 massacre, and the Jewish newspaper’s executive chairman – and owner of the New York Sun – opened his speech with a pugnacious assessment of the world’s latest geopolitical flashpoint.
“Friends,” the British-born proprietor said, still adjusting his microphone. “The Jewish state is at war. This war has many fronts. First and foremost it is fought by the young soldiers of Israel.”
Efune added to those frontiers the United States’ political institutions and the “unrepentant and irredeemable” world of academia, before concluding: “And finally, there is the raging battle for truth, on the front lines of which the Algemeiner stands…
“We are gathered here now as soldiers in this battle for truth. Today, our obligation is to fight… with every report and headline. In the trenches of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok. And in every dark corner of the great battleground of ideas.”
Little more than a year on from his speech to the media luminaries gathered at the gala, and the US-based publisher finds himself in the front seat to buy a tool that he may look to add to his armoury in this “battle for ideas”.
One with considerably more influence, and a larger and more international readership, than any of those currently at his disposal: The Daily Telegraph.
Dovid Efune took much the of media world off-guard when he tabled a bid worth more than £500m in the second auction of The Telegraph Media Group last month.
The little-known newspaper owner, who has owned the east coast broadsheet The New York Sun for three years, outbid more monied and established rivals in the shape of advertising guru Lord Saatchi, National World-owner David Montgomery, hedge fund tycoon Sir Paul Marshall, and the publisher of the Daily Mail – Lord Rothermere’s DMGT – to enter six weeks of exclusive talks with the outlet’s de facto owners, Redbird IMI.
In so doing, the 39-year-old looked to have all but sealed an unlikely victory in a battle for the cannon of conservatism, one that has been raging since it was repossessed by Lloyds Bank from the Barclay family nearly 18 months ago.
The Telegraph’s long drawn out sale
“The Telegraph is a slightly odd commercial prospect because it has been in the Bardo – the place between death and rebirth – for years now,” Alice Enders, head of research at media analyst firm Enders Analysis, tells City AM. “Lloyds effectively took control of it in mid-2023, since when there has effectively been no owner.”
The central reason behind the broadsheet’s drawn-out sale lies largely with the identity of its current de facto owners, Redbird IMI. The vehicle, which is a joint venture between private equity behemoth Redbird Capital Partners and a UAE’s state-backed enterprise called International Media Investments, was founded in June 2023, just months before The Telegraph formally went on sale.
With the financial heft of a gulf state behind it, the entity led by former CNN president Jeff Zucker blew other suitors out of the water with an audacious £600m bid.
Despite a chorus of rightwing media heavyweights voicing their alarm over the Emerati owner’s views on freedom of speech, it looked certain that the outlet was heading into Redbird IMI’s hands.
The Telegraph is a slightly odd commercial prospect because it has been without a functioning owner since mid-2023
Until, in March of this year, then-culture secretary Lucy Frazer forced through an emergency piece of legislation banning the ownership of national newspapers by foreign states or governments.
The swift move left Redbird’s bid dead in the water, paving the way for a second auction, during which time The Telegraph was – for all intents and purposes – held in aspic, with Redbird IMI the owners on paper, but unable to exercise any executive control.
And while the messy episode, much of which played out through a series of acrimonious briefings and editorials, did not bring The Telegraph’s staff any closer to knowing who their ultimate owner would be, it did, Enders says, illustrate one of the key reasons behind The Telegraph’s sale being so onerous.
“The regulatory hurdles for any potential proprietor of a national news outlet are huge,” says Enders. “Ofcom takes these public interest tests super seriously. They take time. The Secretary of State and the regulator will need to make a decision, not just on the nominal owner, but also the individuals or institutions that are backing him or her.
“Indeed, the first aspect of that process will be Ofcom taking a very close look at the source of money that Efune – or whoever the successful suitor is – has compiled to make a bid.”
Down to the wire for Efune
And it transpires that such scrupulous levels of due diligence have, according several recent reports, left Efune’s tilt at the centre-right title in the lurch with less than a week until his six-week period of exclusive talks with Redbird is due to end.
Earlier this month, stories emerged alleging that one of the key financial backers the New York publisher was in talks with, private equity firm Oaktree Capital, was no longer planning to back Efune’s bid for the 169-year-old title.
A spokesman for Efune denied that his bid was in any way contingent on Oaktree’s backing, insisting that the group had “high confidence in [its] financing path”. Oaktree declined to comment.
Nevertheless, Enders believes that, added to the regulatory hurdles, the financial proposition is also making private capital sceptical of The Telegraph’s merits as an investment case.
The first, she says, is that Redbird IMI have put an enormous £550m price tag on the paper.
“Then there is the opportunity cost given this price,” she adds. “Can they feasibly envisage a world where they get a 25 per cent return over a seven-year cycle?”
Efune’s team has denied that their bid’s success is contingent on Oaktree Capital’s backing
A source familiar with Efune’s financing discussions says his team has coordinated backing from “dozens of funding parties involved” that span debt and equity support from the US and the UK.
And his team claim that stories of his bid’s financial precariousness are being whipped up by rival bidders behind the scenes, some of whom are waiting in the wings should the New York publisher’s bid fail.
A source close to the National World’s David Montgomery told City AM that “they remain interested” in The Telegraph but will not “overpay for the asset” in the way they feel Efune has.
DMGT has also not fully ruled out a residing interest, according to reports, despite pulling its bid in July fearing it would run into issues with the UK’s competition regulator, though the company declined to comment on its rumoured interest in the paper.
Yet the New York Sun publisher remains adamant his bid will make it over the line before the six-week exclusive Dtalk period ends at 5pm this Friday. His hopes were given a boost over the weekend when it was revealed that two investors could include former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and the billionaire political donor Mohamed Mansour.
Should he fail, and The Telegraph would then be subject to its third auction process in less than a year. Should he succeed, and Efune and his backers will have to pass through Ofcom’s arduous regulatory hoops before the Manchester-born New Yorker can get his hand firmly on the tiller of the prestigious conservative outlet.
Either way, there is still a long way to go before he could put The Telegraph’s army of journalists to use in his “battle for truth” that he spoke about thirteen months ago.