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Dovid Efune, the British-born boss of The New York Sun, has emerged as a leading bidder for the UK’s Telegraph newspaper, as competition continues from other interested investors and media owners in a sale expected to raise £550mn.
RedBird IMI is weighing offers for the right-leaning Telegraph broadsheet after a second round of bids on Friday. Those close to the process said no decision had been taken about which party to choose ahead of a formal assessment of the offers after the midnight deadline. A decision could come as early as this weekend.
US billionaire Bill Ackman had been sounded out by bidders to provide finance but declined to become involved, people close to the process told the Financial Times. Ackman declined to comment.
RedBird IMI, which wants to recoup the money spent on acquiring control of the newspaper last year, is seeking about £550mn in the auction, according to those familiar with the situation.
Efune is seen as one of the most likely to succeed given the relative lack of obstacles such as antitrust concerns that could undermine rival offers, according to two people close to the process. He has also secured backing from a number of heavyweight US investment funds.
Rival regional newspaper owner National World, which is run by former Telegraph boss David Montgomery, also submitted a bid on Friday, according to people close to the process.
The group has met the Telegraph management twice this month, those people said, and is in talks about raising money to fund its bid. However, it is more financially constrained than rival bidders given the need to raise money on the public market.
Sir Paul Marshall also officially remained in the process on Friday, in a consortium with Ken Griffin, the American billionaire, according to those close to the situation, but he had not submitted a further formal bid on Friday afternoon.
Marshall, the hedge fund boss and co-owner of GB News, acquired The Spectator — the world’s oldest magazine that was the Telegraph’s former stablemate — from RedBird IMI for £100mn earlier this month. Those close to the bid process said he had not met the management and was concerned about the price, however, raising questions over whether he will continue with the offer.
Nadhim Zahawi, the former UK chancellor, is also still interested in pulling together a consortium for the paper, according to those close to the process.
A number of potential buyers have walked away from the sale.
Lord Rothermere’s DMGT, which owns the Daily Mail, on Friday rejected reports of new involvement. A DMGT spokesperson said: “Neither DMGT nor Lord Rothermere is currently involved in the Telegraph sales process, nor do they expect to be in future.”
Efune is the publisher of The New York Sun and was previously chief executive and editor-in-chief of the Algemeiner Journal, a Jewish community publication. The New York Sun closed in 2008 but was revived as a digital-focused publication in 2021 by Efune.
A deal for the Telegraph with Efune would mean a renewed link with Conrad Black, the Canadian-British businessman, who writes for The New York Sun. His Hollinger publishing business sold the Telegraph to the Barclay family for £665mn in 2004. He was separately convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice in 2007 and fully pardoned by Donald Trump, US president at the time, in 2019.
The Barclay family lost control of the Telegraph in 2023 in the wake of unpaid bad debts to Lloyds Banking Group, which then sold control to RedBird IMI in a £600mn deal. RedBird IMI was blocked by the UK government from completing the deal earlier this year owing to its backing from Abu Dhabi, which led to the second sales process.
