The Culture Secretary has signalled her intention to scrutinise the proposed £500 million takeover of The Telegraph by the owner of the Daily Mail, citing significant competition concerns.
Lisa Nandy informed both The Telegraph and Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) on Tuesday that she is “minded to intervene” in the deal, based on public interest grounds.
The move follows DMGT’s agreement in November to acquire The Telegraph from RedBird IMI.
This came after an earlier attempt by an Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm to purchase the newspaper group was blocked by the then Conservative government.
Last month, DMGT confirmed it had successfully secured the necessary funding to proceed with its bid.
She said this specifically links to whether there is “sufficient plurality of views” and “sufficient plurality of persons of control”.
Therefore, she is specifically keen to assess whether the deal will impact newspaper customers by reducing the number of titles owned by different parent groups.
The purchase would see the Telegraph become part of DMGT’s stable of media organisations, which also includes Metro, The I Paper and New Scientist.
Ms Nandy said: “It is important to note that I have not taken a final decision on intervention at this stage.
“The ‘minded to’ letter invites further representations in writing from the parties and gives them until 9am on Monday January 26 to respond.
“If I decide to issue an intervention notice, the next stage would be for Ofcom to assess and report to me on the public interest concerns, and for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to assess and report to me on whether a relevant merger situation has been created, and any impact this may have on competition.”
The Telegraph and DMGT have been contacted for comment.