The managing director of the British press group Telegraph Media Group (TMG), Nick Hugh, resigned on Friday January 26, in the midst of controversy over the possible takeover of the company by an American-Emirati fund, which worries London about compliance with the freedom of press. Mr Hugh, who has been at the helm of the company since 2017, will be replaced by Anna Jones, 48, the first woman to hold the position, who joined the group “as an advisor in January 2023”specifies Telegraph Media Group in a press release.
TMG is one of the most influential British media groups, which includes the conservative daily The Telegraph and the weekly The Spectator. The press group’s executive announced at the end of November that it would examine the sale process, citing “public interest” facing the prospect of a takeover by a joint venture between the American fund RedBird and the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Fund (IMI).
At the origin of this transaction: a debt of 1.2 billion pounds (1.4 billion euros) from the Barclay family, owner of the newspaper since 2004. The British bank Lloyds, creditor of the Barclays, had put up for sale THE Telegraph in October to pay off this heavy liability.
But RedBird IMI offered to repay the debt, which has been done since the beginning of December, in exchange for a takeover of the group: the joint venture intends to use an option to convert part of the loan into shares of the media group – but assured that the Emirati fund would be a “passive investor”.
The possible Emirati takeover raises questions
Thursday evening, Andrew Neil, president of the Spectatorexpressed concern on the BBC that “those who finance this project are the United Arab Emirates”which are “an undemocratic government, a dictatorship”adding that “the government should intervene”.
The Minister of Culture, Lucy Frazer, had already expressed concern about the risks for press freedom of a takeover by an Emirati fund, which had led to an evaluation of the operation by the British authority of competition, the CMA, and the media regulator, Ofcom. These two bodies must submit their reports to Mr.me Frazer.
But the British press was speculating about a postponement of the deadline after RedBird IMI announced this week that it had changed the corporate structure through which it plans to hold the Telegraph.
In another file, the British government estimated, Wednesday evening, that the participation of Emirates Telecommunications Group in Vodafone, of which it became the largest shareholder in 2022, represents a “national security risk” and that the operator must be supervised on files “sensitive”.