Desmond Puts Together Bid For Telegraph Titles
Richard Desmond, publisher of the Express newspapers, is understood to have instructed his financial advisors to put together a bid for The Telegraph, amid increasing interest in the assets of the paper’s owner Hollinger International.
Daily Mail & General Trust is also understood to be among a group of interested parties that have already approached Lazard, the investment bank charged with examining strategic alternatives for Hollinger.
Over the next few days potential bidders will be invited to scrutinise the books of Hollinger and its assets, which include the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post.
There has been some confusion as to exactly which assets will be put up for sale as the US-publisher attempts to alleviate its financial difficulties in the midst of an investigation by US regulators over allegations of millions of pounds worth of unauthorised payments (see Black To Step Down As Chief Executive Of Hollinger).
However, a report in The Independent claims that Desmond is pressing ahead, and has ordered his finical advisors at Seymour Pierce to put together an offer capable of seeing off other potential bidders.
Desmond’s Express Newspapers would be able to move quickly on the titles and the group has an advantage over other interested parties in that it owns half of the print works, where the Telegraph is contracted to be printed until 2009.
Reports also suggest that Desmond has met with met Conservative party leader, Michael Howard, who is seeking to seek a promise that The Telegraph would remain a Tory title if it was bought by Express Newspapers.
Meanwhile, Stephen Grabiner, the former managing director of The Telegraph, has also been tipped as a potential bidder, alongside Candover, the venture capital group which used to own Regional Independent Media. News International is understood to have ruled itself out of the process.
Earlier this week Dan Colson, vice chairman of Hollinger International, was appointed chief operating officer of the group, following Lord Black’s decision to step down. Colson will assume wider responsibilities for the group’s overall operations, as well as continuing as chief executive of the Telegraph Group (see Hollinger Appoints Colson As Chief Operating Officer).
Hollinger International: www.hollinger.com
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