Bosses of The Daily Telegraph’s parent company will instruct bankers within weeks to launch an auction of one of Britain’s best-known newspaper publishers.
Sky News has learnt that Nick Hugh, the chief executive of Telegraph Media Group (TMG), told staff on Tuesday that the new board of Press Acquisitions was in the process of hiring advisers.
“The new directors of TMG’s parent company are currently exploring the possibility of appointing an investment bank,” Mr Hugh told employees.
The development will come slightly later than originally expected, with the likes of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan vying to sell the Daily and Sunday Telegraph titles, and the weekly current affairs magazine, The Spectator.
Sky News revealed this month that the newspapers’ former owners, the Barclay family, had tabled proposals to restructure its debt to Britain’s biggest high street lender in a last-ditch attempt to regain control.
Lloyds Banking Group is owed roughly £1bn by the family, which also owns the Yodel delivery service and the Very Group online shopping platform.
Carlyle, the private equity firm which already holds a portion of debt attached to Barclay-backed companies including the online shopping business Very Group, is understood to have been involved in the talks with the family.
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Lloyds took the bombshell decision to place the newspapers’ indirect holding company into receivership earlier this month.
Lloyds executives expect the media assets to command a price tag of about £600m, meaning it would still be owed in the region of £400m by the Barclay family even after the proceeds of the Telegraph sale are used to repay part of the loan.
AlixPartners is acting as receiver to a holding company within the group, while Lloyds is being advised by Lazard on its options for the assets.
The impending sale process will be among the most hotly contested media auctions in Britain for years and is expected to draw interest from billionaires, Tory donors and other media groups.
Lloyds has removed directors appointed by the Barclay family, including Aidan Barclay, the chairman of the newspaper group, and installed two restructuring experts.
Aidan Barclay is the nephew of Sir Frederick Barclay, the octogenarian who along with late brother Sir David engineered the takeover of the Telegraph in 2004.
TMG declined to comment.