By Sam Tabahriti
LONDON (Reuters) -U.S.-based private investment firm RedBird Capital Partners on Friday pulled out of a 500-million-pound ($671-million) bid for Britain’s Telegraph Media Group, the latest twist in a two-and-a-half year saga at one of Britain’s biggest newspapers.
“RedBird has today withdrawn its bid for the Telegraph Media Group,” a spokesperson told Reuters.
Telegraph Media Group is the publisher of the right-leaning Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers plus a news website, which is one of the biggest in Britain.
The decision comes a month after RedBird formally requested approval from the British government to proceed with the acquisition, under a revised structure that would have given it sole control of the broadsheet, with Abu Dhabi-backed IMI participating as a minority investor capped at 15%.
OWNERSHIP IN FLUX SINCE 2023
Ownership of the newspaper has been in flux since 2023 when the RedBird IMI joint venture acquired it and The Spectator magazine. The previous government then intervened in the deal, banning foreign state investment in British newspapers.
The current government later relaxed the rules, allowing foreign state-backed investors to hold up to 15% of UK newspaper publishers, paving the way for RedBird’s revised proposal.
RedBird, which manages about $12 billion in assets globally, said its conviction in the potential of the Telegraph “never wavered” when making the formal request to acquire it, despite challenges facing journalism, including AI and social media disruption.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport declined to comment following RedBird’s withdrawal.
The Telegraph Media Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
($1 = 0.7451 pounds)
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti in London, additional reporting by Rishab Shaju in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo, Sarah Young and Louise Heavens)
