Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said she is “minded to” refer the proposed £500m takeover of the Telegraph titles by the owner of the Daily Mail to UK media and competition regulators.
Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) agreed a deal in November to buy the newspaper group, which would bring together the Daily and Sunday Telegraph with the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. Nandy said she intended to ask Ofcom to examine the impact on media plurality, while the Competition and Markets Authority would assess potential competition issues.
In a written statement to Parliament, Nandy confirmed her department had written to the current and proposed owners of Telegraph Media Group to inform them she was “minded to” intervene. She added that no final decision had been taken, and the parties have until 26 January to respond.
The intervention would come in the form of a public interest intervention notice (PIIN), triggering an investigation process of up to 40 working days. The probe would consider whether the right-leaning publishing powerhouse, controlled by Lord Rothermere’s DMGT, raises public interest concerns over “sufficient plurality of persons with control”.
The Telegraph was put up for sale in April 2024 after RedBird IMI – a joint venture between US private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners and the UAE’s International Media Investments – was forced to divest following legislation against foreign state ownership. A previous deal involving DMGT with a 10% stake fell through in November.
DMGT has said the Mail and Telegraph editorial teams would remain separate and editorially independent, and that the deal would provide “much-needed certainty” to Telegraph staff after a sale process lasting more than two years.
