A crunch few days for the Telegraph Group, which could have new, controversial, owners by Monday.
If all goes to plan for mooted lead bidder RedBirdIMI, it satisfies the £1.2 billion debts owed to Lloyds Bank by the Barclay family on Friday.
A delayed court hearing to ratify the sale goes ahead on Monday, December 4, then a new era begins for one of the UK’s premier news groups.
The complicating factors are many. One is that while RedBird says the Telegraph will be run by former CNN man Jeff Zucker, the money for the bid comes from Abu Dhabi.
Not every Telegraph reader is delighted by that and culture secretary Lucy Frazer is “minded” to intervene on public interest grounds.
In the background, rival bidders shall scheme away. Lord Rothermere of the Daily Mail Group is unlikely to go down without a fight.
Paul Marshall, the hedge fund king who owns GB News, no more likely to shrug his shoulders and walk away.
Goldman Sachs, which is being very quiet just now, might also be on manoeuvres, since it wants a fee for handling a sale. It’s no use to Goldman if RedBird, Lloyds and the Barclay family sort it out for themselves.
It is assumed that once the Barclay debts to Lloyds are satisfied, they are out. But, as Lloyds Bank might say, assuming anything about the Barclay family tends to lead to disappointment.
RedBird’s point – and it is a good one – is that it has no desire to ruin the Telegraph’s franchise by changing its editorial stance.
It wants to own the business because of what it already is, not what they might turn it into.
For Lloyds Bank, the favoured option, after 14 years of dilly-dallying with the Barclays, is something quick and relatively painless.
No one involved wants this deal to drag into a general election period, which might come as soon as May.
And the way to bet is that RedBirdIMI gets its way. It is likely to be a fraught few days though.
