Lord Saatchi considering a move for The Telegraph ahead of bid deadline
Advertising giant and Conservative peer Lord Saatchi is considering making a bid for The Telegraph, according to a report.
Lord Saatchi is currently consulting on forming a consortium bid for the paper, Sky News reported over the weekend.
The bid could involve Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a former director of The Economist Group, the report said.
Prospective bidders for The Telegraph and The Spectator have been given a 19 July deadline to submit their indicative offers for the media titles.
Lord Saatchi was one half of the advertising duo who created Saatchi & Saatchi and, later, M&C Saatchi, and his agencies’ work for the Conservative Party was hailed as an important factor in the Tories’ electoral success in the late 1970s and 1980s.
RedBird IMI – a partnership backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the UAE’s vice-president, and the US investment firm RedBird Capital Partners – put the newspaper group up for sale a few months ago.
The group said it was walking away after it said new legislation, designed to block foreign states or associated individuals from owning newspaper assets in the UK, meant the acquisition was “no longer feasible”, triggering a fresh auction of the newspaper group.
Other bidders are expected to include Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund tycoon, and Lord Rothermere, the Daily Mail proprietor.
The Telegraph and Lord Saatchi were contacted for comment.