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American buyout firm RedBird has agreed a deal to take control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph after a two-year ownership vacuum.<\/p>\n
RedBird Capital will buy the stake owned by Emirati royal Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Sultan al-Nahyan who had bankrolled an earlier bid.<\/p>\n
That bid was rejected by the previous government, which passed a law preventing foreign governments owning British newspapers or news magazines.<\/p>\n
The current proposed deal will need regulatory approval.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Both Telegraph titles and the Spectator magazine were put up for auction by Lloyds Bank, who seized them from the Barclay family for non-payment of outstanding debts.<\/p>\n
In a bold but ultimately unsuccessful move, a consortium of RedBird and Sheikh Mansour’s IMI paid off the Barclay brothers’ debts in full hoping to shortcut the auction process.<\/p>\n
However, the fact that the consortium was almost entirely funded by IMI saw the government intervene and prevent it taking majority ownership.<\/p>\n
It is thought that IMI will retain a minority stake of less than 15% in the two papers. <\/p>\n