Telegraph and Spectator put up for sale

The Telegraph and The Spectator have been formally put up for sale, it was confirmed on Friday.

In a brief statement, the boards of the parent companies of Telegraph Media Group - owner of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph - and The Spectator (1828) said their advisors had launched the sale process for each of the businesses.

Goldman Sachs is advising on the sale process. The investment bank was appointed at the end of July to assess the readiness of the titles for a sale.

The Barclay family has owned the Telegraph and the Spectator since 2004, but in June Lloyds Banking Group took control of the titles in a long-running dispute over unpaid debts of more than £1bn. AlixPartners was appointed receiver.

The much-anticipated auction has reportedly attracted numerous expressions of interests, while the Barclay family is also keen to wrest back control.

Earlier this week it tabled an offer valuing the newspaper group at £1bn, with financial backing understood to come from a group of Abu Dhabi-based investors. The offer tops a previous proposal from the family valuing the business at £725m.

The Telegraph is one of the UK’s leading right-leaning newspapers, and analysts have attached an expected price tag to the newspapers of between £500m and £700m. The Spectator is expected to fetch around £70m.

As well as the Barclay family, other potential bidders include German media giant Axel Springer, Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere and Paul Marshall, founder of hedge fund Marshall Wace and a minority investor in GB News.

Newspaper group National World, which is run by former Mirror head David Montgomery, is also thought to be putting together a bid for the newspapers, while News UK, which owns The Times, has been slated as a possible bidder for The Spectator.

As well as the weekly political magazine, The Spectator owns art title Apollo.