Media groups have reportedly shown fresh interest in a takeover of the Telegraph and Spectator alongside Redbird IMI, the UAE backed consortium.
Bloomberg said Rupert Murdoch’s News UK and DMGT, which owns the Daily Mail, have shown interest in the Telegraph and Spectator assets as Lucy Frazer, culture secretary, considers reports submitted by competition and media regulators on whether a more detailed investigation is needed into Redbird IMI’s planned £600m takeover of one of the UK’s most influential newspapers.
The proposed deal by RedBird IMI, a partnership between a fund backed by the UAE’s vice-president, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and the US investment firm RedBird Capital Partners, has been fiercely opposed by many Tory MPs and peers who have raised concerns about press freedom and had urged the regulators to scrutinise the deal.
Redbird IMI is majority-owned by International Media Investments, backed by Mansour, who is best known in the UK as being the ultimate owner of Manchester City football club. The US investor Redbird is run by Jeff Zucker, a former CNN president.
Last November, Lord Rothermere, the executive chair of DMGT, expressed interest in the Telegraph in an interview with the Times. Last year, News UK was among the parties that had shown interest in the Spectator. News UK, DMGT and Redbird IMI declined to comment.
This week, Lady Stowell, the Tory chair of the Commons communications and digital committee, tabled an amendment to the digital markets bill that would give parliament a veto on foreign governments taking over UK media organisations. Her amendment will face a vote on Wednesday. More than 100 MPs led by the former minister Robert Jenrick have supported the amendment.
The UK government is considering whether to take its own action, including amending existing legislation such as the 2002 Enterprise Act in a move that would supersede Stowell’s amendment.
Frazer is considering reports from Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on the implications of the Redbird IMI deal and whether to open a phase 2 investigation in which the CMA is given 24 weeks to assess whether the deal operates against the public interest and whether any remedies can be instigated to let the merger proceed.