City financier Jeremy Hosking has said his rival bid for Telegraph is ready to go, putting the hedge fund tycoon head to head with US private equity giant Redbird Capital Partners.
Hosking plans to commit £100m of his own money into the newspaper group if his bid with The New York Sun owner Dovid Efune is successful, according to Sky News’ Mark Kleinman.
The two men have been working together for several months in an effort to take over the broadsheet.
Investment consortium led by Redbird Capital Partners had looked likely to buy The Telegraph in a deal worth £500m, but Hosking’s comments this morning throw the deal into yet more uncertainty.
The paper has faced two years of turmoil over its ownership after its previous owners, the Barclay brothers, defaulted on a £1.15bn debt owed to Lloyds Banking Group.
Abu Dhabi-based RedBird IMI then took control of the publishing group in November 2023 – after agreeing to pay these debts – and had bid £600m for the paper, but the deal was blocked by the then Conservative government and legislation to ban the ownership of news organisations by foreign state was rushed through Parliament.
In a statement, Hosking said he had “the best outcome for all Telegraph stakeholders front of mind”.
“We understand from the Lords debate last week that there is now a legal requirement for the government to formally investigate all the foreign government ties that may result in influence over the current preferred buyer.
Last week, the House of Lords voted against a ‘fatal motion’ which would have blocked the investment from IMI.
“Should the buyer be deemed unsuitable, our “British Bid” is ready to go,” Hosking added.
“We believe our current capitalization is more than adequate to replace the controlling shareholder’s portion of the deal.”