The US boss of the Abu Dhabi-backed company that is the frontrunner to acquire the Telegraph newspapers has accused rival bidders of hypocrisy and reiterated a pledge to the UK government that he would guarantee the newspaper’s editorial independence.
The bid is being fronted by Jeff Zucker, a former chief executive of CNN who now runs RedBird IMI, which is mostly funded by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and owner of Manchester City football club.
Zucker said rival bidders now warning of potential threats to media freedom if the deal goes through, had previously approached him about joint takeover offers.
“There’s a reason that people are slinging mud and throwing darts – [it’s] because they want to own these assets,” he told the Financial Times. “And they have their own media assets to try to hurt us. [Some of the] people throwing stones now, tried to approach us before to see if we would work with them on this bid. So let’s just be clear about that. We were fine in the eyes of our competitors before we were trying to do this on our own.”
Reports have suggested the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, could intervene before the weekend by asking the media regulator, Ofcom, to examine the proposed deal on public interest grounds.
Redbird IMI, a joint venture between Sheikh Mansour’s International Media Investments (IMI) fund and the US investment firm RedBird Capital, is close to sealing a deal to take control of the Telegraph newspapers and their stablemate, the Spectator, in exchange for repaying £1.15bn of debts owed by the Barclay family to Lloyds Banking Group.
Lloyds took control of the assets in June and earlier this week paused an auction of the titles, which have attracted bidders including the hedge fund billionaire and GB News co-owner Paul Marshall, Rupert Murdoch’s News UK and the owner of the Daily Mail.
Zucker reiterated that IMI, which has investments including CNN Business Arabic, Sky News Arabia and Euronews, would “remain a fully passive investor” and would “not exercise any control of the Telegraph or Spectator”.
On Wednesday, Frazer said she was “minded” to ask Ofcom to examine the Barclay family’s proposed deal with RedBird IMI on public interest grounds.
These grounds include the need for accurate presentation of news, free expression of opinion and – specifically regarding newspapers – a sufficient plurality of views and of persons with control of ownership.
Frazer could move to act as soon as Friday, which would shift the issue to Ofcom and distance the government from the politically charged deal.
It was reported on Thursday that the Foreign Office stepped in to try to “soften” the language used by Frazer in the letter to RedBird IMI over concerns the language could offend the UAE ahead of a London summit for foreign investors next week, and Rishi Sunak’s trip to the Gulf the following week for the Cop28 climate conference.
In Frazer’s letter to RedBird IMI, she said she was aware the investment fund had “links to media organisations that have been critiqued for partisan views and therefore believes there may be an impact on the plurality of views of newspapers in the UK, if RedBird IMI gain influence over Telegraph Media Group”.
RedBird IMI has said that it is “fully committed” to keep the existing management and editorial teams at the Telegraph and Spectator and that an advisory board would ensure the independence of both titles.
Zucker said: “We feel confident that with those moves there should be no question about the editorial independence of the Telegraph or Spectator. I’ve spent 35 years running or supervising news organisations, and there’s nothing I understand more than editorial independence. I have staked my reputation and legacy on not allowing editorial interference.”
He said there was “real potential” to establish the Telegraph as a global media brand.
“We’ve thought for a long time that the real gap in the US marketplace was a very strong centre-right media brand,” he said.
The prime minister’s spokesperson said on Friday it was “standard practice” for the Foreign Office to provide advice to other government departments, but stressed “this matter and decision is solely one for the culture secretary”.
She said “no decisions have been taken” and that evaluation of the bid was “an ongoing consideration process”.