Barclay family’s offer for Telegraph likely to be referred to Ofcom
The culture secretary has said that she is likely to refer the Barclay family’s proposed £1.15bn deal to take back control of the Telegraph and Spectator magazine to Ofcom.
Lucy Frazer, who has 10 working days to make a final decision on referring the deal to the media regulator, said that she was “minded to” issue an intervention notice to call in the communications regulator to examine the deal on public interest grounds.
In a statement to parliament, Frazer said her department has written respectively to Lloyds Banking Group, the Barclay family and RedBird IMI, to inform them of the decision.
Frazer said: “This relates to concerns I have that there may be public interest considerations – as set out in section 58 of the Enterprise Act 2002 – that are relevant to the intended loan repayment by the Barclay family and the planned acquisition of Telegraph Media Group by RedBird IMI and that these concerns warrant further investigation.”
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