The owner of The Daily Mail has confirmed its interest in a takeover of The Telegraph, which is to be put up for sale by Lloyds Banking Group.
The publisher, owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, Lord Rothermere, said on Saturday it had contacted the bank to express interest ahead of an expected auction.
A DMGT spokesman said: “We have been engaged with many parties over the possible synergies between DMG Media and the Daily Telegraph and have registered our interest with Lloyds [Banking Group] but we have no formal plans and there is no consortium.”
This is the first public confirmation of DMGT’s interest in The Telegraph since Lloyds took ownership of the newspaper in June.
It is the second publisher to position itself for a bid after the local newspaper publisher behind The Yorkshire Post, National World, told the stock market last week it was considering participating in the auction, which is expected to begin formally in September.
Given its ownership of other newspapers, DMGT’s takeover of The Telegraph could trigger competition issues. As well as the Mail titles, it owns Metro and the i. Lord Rothermere has been pursuing consolidation as print sales decline and threaten the efficiency of DMGT’s print operation.
Sky News reported that DMGT was seeking partners to help finance a bid. It own finances are being squeezed by the decline of print circulation and advertising, as well as debts taken on to pay for Lord Rothermere’s buyout of other shareholders and delisting of the company from the stock exchange last year.
Lloyds won court approval for the unusual action following a lengthy dispute over debts of more than £1bn which had been secured against the publisher by the Barclay family, its owners since 2004.
Goldman Sachs has been appointed to run an auction of The Telegraph on behalf of Lloyds.
The investment bank will act as lead financial adviser on auctions of The Telegraph and The Spectator, alongside legal advisers from the Magic Circle firm Linklaters. Their appointments were made by the boards of the two parent companies, both of which are chaired by the City veteran Mike McTighe.
