Former Owners Mount Bid To Win Back Telegraph
The family of Lord Hartwell, who sold the Daily Telegraph to Lord Conrad Black, is believed to be putting the final touches to a £500 million bid for the title before next week’s first-offer deadline.
Reports suggest that Nicholas Berry, the youngest son of Lord Hartwell, and his nephew, Caspar Gilroy, are preparing to mount a speculative bid to restore the UK most popular broadsheet to Berry family ownership.
According to today’s Times, Berry has been discretely canvassing Telegraph executives for support with the help of Gilroy, a buyout specialist with a background in the software business.
It is understood that regaining the Telegraph has been a long-term goal for Berry, who was seen as the business heir to Lord Hartwell until the peer ran into financial difficulties and sold off the paper to Lord Black in 1985.
Berry already has links to the publishing world and is in the investor consortium behind the Marie Claire magazine empire. He also owns the Mintel market research firm and a controlling stake in Intersport, the Swiss sportsware group.
However, the Berry bid is seen as something of a long-shot since it will take far more than Berry’s own fortune to fund it. He will also face tough competition from a number of rival parties thought to include Daily Mail & General Trust and venture capitalist group 3i (see Rival Bidders Prepare To Move On Telegraph Titles).
In addition, although the Telegraph‘s immediate parent, Hollinger International, is running an auction of assets, Lord Black has agreed to sell a controlling stake to the Barclay Brothers in an ‘irrevocable’ deal due to be contested in a US court.
Lord Black’s holding company claims that Hollinger International has engaged in ‘illegal manoeuvring’ in order to interfere with the sale agreement between Black and the Barclay brothers and claims that this is a ‘blatant thievery’ of Hollinger Inc’s voting rights (see Black Counter-Sues Hollinger Over Illegal Interference).
Hollinger International: www.hollinger.com
Recent Newspaper Sales House Stories from NewsLine Sunday Telegraph Launches Special Six Nations Guide Associated Ends Distribution Deal With The Business Metro UK Launches New Editions In Five New Cities
Subscribers can access ten years of NewsLine articles by clicking the Search button to the left