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The Culture Secretary has intervened and launched a probe into The Telegraph’s proposed £500 million takeover by the owner of the Daily Mail over competition concerns.
It comes a month after Lisa Nandy had said she was “minded to intervene” on public interest grounds.
On Thursday, she confirmed in a written statement that she has launched a public interest intervention into the deal, which would expand one of the UK’s largest media groups.
The secretary said she has “concerns” related to the public interest, including how the move could impact the “plurality of views” in UK news media.
Therefore, she is specifically keen to assess whether the deal will impact newspaper customers by reducing the number of titles owned by different parent groups.
The competition regulator – the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – will investigate the potential deal and report back to Government.
Ms Nandy added that media regulator Ofcom will also look into the public interest implications for the possible deal.
In November, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) agreed to purchase the Telegraph from RedBird IMI after an attempted purchase by the Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm was blocked by the then-Tory government.
A month later DMGT confirmed that it had secured funding to allow it to push forward with the deal.
A DMGT spokesman said: ““We welcome the Secretary of State’s decision to issue a public interest intervention notice, which marks a significant step forward in our proposed acquisition of The Telegraph.
“As the Secretary of State has recognised, the news media industry is changing rapidly, and publishers must compete with an array of online sources.
“Against this backdrop, trusted news organisations will play an ever more critical role, and that requires publishers with the resources and experience to compete.
“We remain committed to investing in The Telegraph and its journalists, preserving its distinctive editorial voice and team, and accelerating its global expansion, with a focus on the US.
“We look forward to working constructively with regulators and the Government to secure a timely completion of the transaction, which will provide stability and certainty to The Telegraph after a protracted period of uncertainty.”
The purchase would see The Telegraph become part of DMGT’s stable of media organisations, which also includes Metro, The i Paper and New Scientist.
The investigation is the latest twist in a roughly three-year ownership tussle for The Telegraph after it was put up for sale by lenders for previous owners the Barclay brothers.
An Abu Dhabi-backed consortium had struck a deal to buy the business but saw this blocked by the Government over foreign ownership concerns.
RedBird IMI, which was partly backed by US firm RedBird Capital but majority-owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice president of the United Arab Emirates, originally agreed to buy the media firm and fellow title The Spectator in 2023.
The Spectator has since been sold to hedge fund tycoon Sir Paul Marshall’s OQS Ventures business for £100 million.
RedBird Capital then agreed a deal without the backing of IMI to buy The Telegraph but saw this collapse late last year before a new deal was struck with DMGT.
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