Capital Economy, Business and Finance
Would Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE be satisfied with a merely passive stake in the Daily Telegraph in return for a little under £1 billion? That is one question prompted by Rishi Sunak’s intervention in the battle for the paper yesterday, announcing an amendment to the UK’s Digital Markets Bill that would outlaw foreign control of or influence over major British media assets. Another question is what the amendment would mean for outlets already fully or partly foreign-owned, among them the Independent and the Evening Standard. Sheikh Mansour, the UAE’s vice president, has contributed 75 per cent of the funding for Redbird IMI, an investment vehicle led by the former CNN president Jeff Zucker. Last year Redbird loaned the Barclay brothers, who bought the Telegraph group in 2004, £1.2 billion to enable them to pay off a longstanding debt to Lloyds Bank. The Telegraph and its sister magazine the Spectator were valued at £600 million at the time. If the amendment derails the Redbird bid, it’s unclear how or whether Zucker and his backers will get their money back.