The Chelsea FC owner and chair Todd Boehly is in talks over a bid for the Daily Telegraph, in a plan that has seen him team up with the Fleet Street veteran David Montgomery.
Boehly is understood to be talking to Montgomery, the executive chair of National World and former boss of the parent of the Mirror, about mounting a bid, in an attempt to bring an end to two years of uncertainty over the newspaper’s fate.
The Guardian understands that the prospect of a takeover by Montgomery is causing concern inside the Telegraph. He has a reputation as a cost-cutter, though allies say he has decades of experience in the industry and has managed to keep National World profitable in a tough media climate.
“Everyone here knows that if Montgomery got his hands on the Telegraph, it’s game over for us,” said a Telegraph source. “He wouldn’t know how to take the Telegraph forward but then again he wouldn’t want to. How sad.”
The bid for the Telegraph would involve Boehly’s Eldridge Media Holdings (EMH) first making a successful pitch to buy National World, which owns the Yorkshire Post and the Scotsman. The group owns more than 100 regional titles.
It is the latest episode in the long-running saga of the Telegraph’s ownership. RedBird IMI, which derives most of its funding from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City football club, paid £600m to take control of Telegraph Media Group in November 2023 from the Barclay family.
However, RedBird IMI was forced to put the titles back up for sale last spring after the British government published legislation to block foreign states or associated individuals from owning newspaper assets in the UK.
Dovid Efune, the British owner of the New York Sun, had several weeks of exclusivity late last year to push through a £550m deal to buy the titles.
However, Efune has so far failed to raise the financial backing to get the deal over the line and RedBird IMI is pursuing talks with other potential bidders. It has also been reported that Maurice Saatchi, the advertising mogul, had unsuccessfully offered to buy the Telegraph newspapers for £350m.
Other parties previously thought to be interested in the titles include the Daily Mail and General Trust, and Paul Marshall, the hedge fund founder and backer of GB News who went on to buy the Spectator magazine from RedBird IMI for £100m.
Montgomery’s National World, which was an underbidder in the protracted auction of the Telegraph titles, is in the process of a shareholder-approved £65m takeover by its largest investor, Media Concierge.
National World said it had received confirmation that EMH was considering making a proposal to buy the company. “The company acknowledges, for the purposes of the takeover code, that it is in receipt of an approach from EMH regarding a possible offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the company,” said National World in a statement to the stock market on Friday.
“The National World board will consider the terms of any proposal put forward by EMH that may deliver superior value to National World shareholders than the scheme [of arrangement relating to the current sale process].”
National World’s shares rose 7% on Friday, valuing the company at £62m. Boehly and Montgomery have been in talks about a potential deal that would combine National World and the Telegraph titles, and also involve other third-party backers.
While analysts have been sceptical about the £500m price tag that RedBird IMI have placed on the Telegraph titles, sources close to the talks said such a deal could yet be possible, depending on the structure.
