US billionaire Ken Griffin may provide financial backing to a consortium led by fellow hedge fund manager Paul Marshall in a bid to take over the UK’s Telegraph Media Group.
(Bloomberg) — US billionaire Ken Griffin may provide financial backing to a consortium led by fellow hedge fund manager Paul Marshall in a bid to take over the UK’s Telegraph Media Group.
The two financiers have discussed Griffin supporting the potential bid which Marshall is preparing to make through his UnHerd Ventures media group, according to people familiar with the matter. Any auction is expected to kick off in the coming weeks.
Marshall, co-founder of money manager Marshall Wace, is lining up backers and working with financial adviser Moelis & Co., according to the Telegraph, which reported the news earlier.
Spokespeople for Citadel and Marshall Wace declined to comment.
Griffin — founder of hedge fund Citadel and market-maker Citadel Securities — would only invest in such an effort personally, not through his company, a person with knowledge of his thinking told Bloomberg.
The major Republican donor — whose fortune exceeds $36 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — could provide potent firepower in an auction already drawing a number of competing bidders. The media group publishes two of Britain’s best-known conservative titles, the Telegraph and the Spectator. In June, Lloyds Banking Group Plc seized control of the publications from the Barclay family, which had owned them since 2004.
Other parties expected to bid for the Telegraph group include Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and Daily Mail & General Trust Plc, which was taken private by proprietor and Chairman Jonathan Harmsworth, known as Lord Rothermere. DMGT publishes the right-wing tabloid the Daily Mail.
Marshall, who is a co-owner of television channel GB News, is preparing his offer with advice from Paul Zwillenberg, a former executive at Daily Mail & General Trust Plc, the FT reported, citing two people familiar with the situation.
(Updates to add detail of discussions, auction timeframe. An earlier version of the story was corrected to clarify Marshall is a co-owner of GB News.)
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