The owner of The New York Sun is in exclusive negotiations to purchase The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. He wants to finalise the financing of a bid worth more than £500million.
Dovid Efune secured exclusive six-week talks to purchase the Barclay publications. Lloyds Bank had seized the Barclays’ publications in a dispute over unpaid bills amounting to £1.2 billion.
RedBird IMI was a joint venture partly funded by an Emirati Royal. It had hoped that it could secure the titles through refinancing Barclay’s family debts to Lloyds Bank. However, its plan to turn the debts into equity has been blocked by ministers.
Dovid Efune is in talks with several parties regarding financing of a deal
Politicians introduced new legislation to stop RedBird IMI’s deal, as they were worried that a UK-based news outlet would be influenced by a foreign government. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan is the deputy premier of the United Arab Emirates. This country has been criticized for its censorship of journalists.
The journalists warned the UAE rulers that they would take action to prevent negative coverage on business and political issues. One journalist stated that the UAE only wanted to own a newspaper for the “prestige”, but not the responsibility.
Lord Parkinson, of Whitley bay at the time was the Minister for Arts and Heritage. He announced the new measures in March to prevent foreign powers from owning newspapers, stating that free media is “the bedrock of democracy and a safeguard which ensures accountability, effective government, and effective governance”.
RedBird IMI now seeks to sell the Telegraph titles. Efune was born in Manchester but has built his media career in New York. He emerged as the leading bidder in the auction when he hired LionTree to provide advice on a bid.
He is in talks with several parties regarding financing, including Oaktree Investments, a hedge fund manager’s family office, and Michael Leffell. He was seeking support for a bid from Hudson Bay Capital but could not secure it.
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