Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund tycoon who backs GB News, is poised to become the new owner of the Spectator in a deal worth up to £100m.
Marshall, who also owns the UnHerd website, has been in exclusive talks to buy the 196-year-old politically conservative magazine for the past month.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the week, although sources said hammering out the final legal details could result in the timeline slipping to early next week.
RedBird IMI – the consortium backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates, and the US investment firm RedBird Capital Partners – moved to take control of Telegraph Media Group in November last year from the Barclay family.
However, the deal was referred to UK regulators over press freedom and competition concerns. RedBird IMI was forced to put the Spectator and Telegraph titles back up for sale in the spring after the British government published legislation to block foreign states or associated individuals from owning newspaper assets in the UK.
The sale of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph is being run separately, and RedBird IMI last month whittled down the shortlist of potential buyers for the next round of bidding.
The second round bidders are poised to make presentations and meet management at the Telegraph this week, including the group’s chief executive, Anna Jones, and the Daily Telegraph editor, Chris Evans. Formal bids are due later this month.
Marshall, who is leading the bid as part of a consortium backed by Ken Griffin, the US billionaire founder of the Citadel hedge fund, is one of about four prospective buyers in the running.
Others to have been revealed include the former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, although it is unclear if he has achieved formal commitments from billionaire backers he had held talks with about financing a £600m bid.
Zahawi was originally involved as a “middleman”, introducing the United Arab Emirates-backed consortium to the Barclay family, which enabled them to repay £1.16bn in loans and transfer control of the debt-laden business back from Lloyds Banking Group last year.
RedBird IMI subsequently converted the loans into control of the Telegraph titles and the Spectator magazine.
National World, the UK-listed media group run by the former Mirror chief executive David Montgomery, is also thought to still be in the frame.
CVC, the private equity group behind the Six Nations tournament and English Premiership Rugby, is understood to have held talks with other bidders about potentially making a joint bid.
However, it is not clear how serious the talks have been or whether any have formally progressed.
RedBird IMI and a spokesperson for Marshall declined to comment.
