Specifically, Lloyds Bank has put B.UK (Barclay Brothers), the company that most recently owned Telegraph Media Group (TMG), into receivership for the debt. B.UK said this would require them to "sell the Telegraph and Spectator businesses".
The Telegraph is the UK's leading news brand, operating across both print and digital. Photo: FT
The Barclay family, brothers Frederick Barclay and David Barclay, bought the Telegraph newspapers in 2004. The family's loans were bought by Lloyds in 2008 and are now largely considered bad debts.
Lloyds is expected to struggle to recover the full value of its debts, with the Telegraph Group's newspapers valued at between £500m and £700m.
The sale will mark the end of the Barclay brothers' long-standing ownership of the Telegraph newspapers, which they bought for around £665m.
In a message to Telegraph staff on Wednesday, CEO Nick Hugh said he was confident the newspaper would “continue to grow and prosper” despite the potential sale to another investor.
Currently, some investors have planned to buy these newspapers, such as Czech energy tycoon Daniel Křetínský, publisher Mediahuis... In addition, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is also very interested in buying Spectator, an influential political magazine in the UK.
In the financial year ending 2 January, Telegraph Media Group reported revenues of £245m and pre-tax profits of £29.6m, up from £235.2m and £22.1m respectively the previous year.
Hoang Hai (according to Telegraph, FT)
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