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The owner of the Daily Mail has moved hundreds of millions of pounds worth of assets to its newly created offshore parent ahead of the November Budget, City AM has found.
Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), which owns a host of publications including The Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the I newspaper, sold a number of subsidiaries to a group owned by Jersey-based Rothermere Continuation Holdings, a company controlled by Mail owner Lord Rothermere.
The transactions, which took place in late October, were exchanged for an intercompany dividend of £906m, corporate filings show.
The subsidiaries that have changed hands are understood to comprise the group’s overseas interests, which include Saudi Arabia and Qatar-based businesses both known as DMG Events, which run corporate events in the Middle East.
DMGT was obliged to alert investors to the move because its bonds are listed on the London Stock Exchange, but the firm did not at that time detail the nature of the restructure. The company declined to comment on the rationale behind the changes, but the stock exchange update said the move would “align” its structure “with its international activities”.
“The DMGT Group’s businesses, including the Daily Mail, and employees located in the UK will remain in the UK,” the company said in the update.
Businesses brace for fresh tax hikes at Budget
The move comes as businesses brace for a raft of fresh tax announcements at the forthcoming November Budget as Chancellor Rachel Reeves wrestles to bear down on a multi-billion-pound fiscal black hole.
Economists have predicted that Reeves could have to raise as much as £50bn in tax hikes in order to stabilise the public finances, including by increasing her wafer-thin £9.9bn fiscal headroom.
A report by the National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NIESR) said a greater fiscal headroom would “help avoid a recurring cycle of mini fiscal resets,” warning that “many firms are adopting defensive positions in response to cost pressures and uncertainties over future tax changes.”
“We don’t know when the next big shock will be,” said NIESR senior economist Ben Caswell.
“Given the fragility of the fiscal position, now is the right time to start thinking about bringing the debt down and safeguarding the economy for whatever shocks might come in the future.”
