(Reuters) -Lloyds Banking Group is set to launch a 600 million pound ($745.4 million) auction of the Telegraph newspapers and the Spectator magazine within days, amid a row with the brands’ owners, Sky News reported on Tuesday.
The group intends to pursue this course as early as Wednesday and could remove directors appointed by the Barclay family which may include Aidan Barclay, the chairman of the newspaper group, Sky news reported citing industry sources.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported that Press Acquisitions, which controls the Telegraph newspapers, has been threatened with receivership by lender Lloyds Banking Group over a longstanding debt owed by the parent company controlled by the Barclay family.
AlixPartners, the restructuring group, has been lined up as the receiver of Press Acquisitions if Lloyds decides to take action against the operating companies for not paying off a decades-old debt, FT said, citing two people with knowledge of the situation.
“The loans in question are related to the family’s overarching ownership structure of its media assets. They do not, in any way, affect the operations or financial stability of Telegraph Media Group,” the Barclay family said in an emailed response.
“The businesses within our portfolio … have no liability for any holding company liabilities, continue to operate as normal and are unaffected by issues in the holding company structure above them,” the statement said.
The Telegraph did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Lloyds declined to comment.
FT reported that although it was unclear how much money is owed by the group to Lloyds, it could be “hundreds of millions of pounds.” Further, while a repayment deal could still be struck, Lloyds’ patience was running out, the report said.
($1 = 0.8050 pounds)
(Reporting by Bharat Govind Gautam and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter and Stephen Coates)
