By Jess Jones
Lloyds Banking Group has spurned the latest £1bn attempt by the Barclay clan to repurchase the Telegraph, a move which will ease the concerns of hopeful bidders.
The billionaire family recentlysubmitted a repayment offer of £1bn, funded by an anonymous investor from the United Arab Emirates, to court the lender and win back their beloved Telegraph and Spectator.
Now Lloyds have said the Barclay family must repay their debt through a transparently-backed offer, or bid in the ongoing auction, the Financial Times first reported today.
It revealed the bank wants more evidence of sufficient funds from the family. Lloyds has reassured other bidders that the auction, which started a couple weeks ago, remains ongoing.
Sources close to the bidders confirmed the reports toCity A.M.. Lloyds declined to comment.
City A.M. could not immediately reach the Barclay family for comment, but they are understood to be thrashing out a deal to buy back the debt before the end of November.
Their new offer to pay down the debt by the former owners has caused some anxiety among other potential suitors, with one telling City A.M. it raises regulatory issues.
MP Danny Kruger has called on culture secretary Lucy Frazer to issue a Public Interest Intervention Notice into the funding behind the Barclays’ efforts to repay their debts to Lloyds Banking Group.
A spokesperson for the family told the Financial Times that “there is no precedent and no basis for a PIIN being issued in relation to a debt transaction, and we are highly confident [this] would not trigger any regulatory reviews regarding the ownership of the media assets”.
The right-leaning publicationswere put up for sale after the Barclays were forced into receivership when they failed to pay around £1.1bn in debts to Lloyds.
Analysts reckon the papers could be worth around £600m.
The runners and riders in the bidding war to buy the Telegraph include the Daily Mail and General Trust, former Telegraph editor Sir William Lewis, the Murdoch empire, Daniel Křetínský the Czech Sphinx, and a consortium led by Sir Paul Marshall.
