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Hedge fund tycoon Sir Paul Marshall is in advanced talks to acquire the Spectator magazine, putting him in the lead position to take over the conservative weekly title, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.
Marshall has been among the contenders in the auction for the Spectator and the Telegraph newspaper, which are being sold off by the Abu Dhabi-backed investment group RedBird IMI.
A Spectator deal could be agreed as soon as this month, the people said, although they cautioned that Marshall was not in exclusive talks. Sky News first reported the discussions on Thursday. The offer valued the publication at about £100mn, one of the people said.
Marshall is still in the sale process for the Telegraph but a second person said that it was “unlikely” that he would emerge as the buyer.
This means that the titles might be sold separately after first-round bids were submitted last month. RedBird IMI hopes to sell the Telegraph and the Spectator for at least £600mn in total.
Marshall and RedBird IMI declined to comment.
Marshall is the co-founder of Marshall Wace, which he set up in 1997 with Ian Wace. The firm has grown into one of Europe’s largest hedge funds, with $67bn in assets under management.
Marshall has insisted that his day-to-day focus remains his eponymous firm, but over the past few years he has tried to shape the national conversation through involvement in the media sector.
In 2017, he purchased UnHerd, an online comment site, seeking to challenge the mainstream media with a wider range of views. Marshall has grown frustrated with traditional media, which he believes has become tribalised with little room for diverse views.
Soon after, he became a big investor in GB News alongside the Legatum Group, a Christian faith-driven investor based in Dubai. This investment stemmed from his views that a leftwing bias among the dominant UK broadcasters including the BBC and ITV offers an opportunity for a right-leaning rival.
A self-styled classical liberal, Marshall stood for parliament in Fulham in 1987 on an SDP-Liberal Alliance ticket. He quit the Liberal Democrat party in 2015 over its support of continuing EU membership, and backed Brexit in the referendum the following year.
The Spectator bid is being made through Marshall’s Old Queen Street Ventures media group, previously called UnHerd Ventures. Its leadership team includes editor-in-chief Freddie Sayers.
