Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has engaged in casual discussions a couple of doable function at The Telegraph as a part of Nadhim Zahawi’s bid to amass the newspaper.
Zahawi, who served as Chancellor underneath Johnson, is at present assembling a consortium to buy The Telegraph in an ongoing public sale course of.
A supply near Johnson downplayed the importance of those talks, noting that no substantial discussions had taken place, regardless of hypothesis that Johnson might be appointed because the newspaper’s international editor-in-chief. Johnson, who has deep ties to The Telegraph from his time as a Brussels correspondent and columnist, at present writes a weekly column for the Day by day Mail, reportedly incomes a six-figure wage.
Zahawi, who briefly served as Chancellor in Johnson’s ultimate days as Prime Minister, is one among a number of bidders to have superior to the second spherical of the public sale. The public sale, managed by Robey Warshaw and Raine, additionally consists of rival bidders resembling Sir Paul Marshall, with backing from billionaire Republican donor Ken Griffin, and veteran newspaper government David Montgomery. Moreover, two unidentified abroad funding teams stay within the working.
Zahawi has reportedly approached a number of billionaires to help his consortium’s bid, which additionally consists of The Spectator journal, each of that are being bought by Abu Dhabi-backed fund RedBird IMI. The involvement of Johnson in Zahawi’s bid may entice additional curiosity from traders.
Different potential bidders, together with Belgian writer Mediahuis and Lord Rothermere, the proprietor of the Day by day Mail, have been eradicated from the method, with the latter stepping again resulting from issues over regulatory scrutiny.
RedBird IMI was compelled to place The Telegraph up on the market following ministerial intervention, which blocked its takeover over press freedom issues. The sale course of was initiated after RedBird repaid £1.2 billion in money owed owed by the Barclay household, the newspaper’s earlier house owners, to Lloyds Banking Group.
A spokesman for Boris Johnson declined to remark, whereas Nadhim Zahawi didn’t reply to requests for remark.
