The American hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, founder of the hedge fund Citadel LLC, is in talks to help fund a transatlantic takeover bid for U.K. newspaper, The Telegraph, led by Sir Paul Marshall of the London-based hedge fund Marshall Wace, The Telegraph reported.
An auction for the publication is expected to begin in the coming weeks. Lender Lloyds Banking Group
LLOY,
took control of the publication in June after a dispute over loans of about $1.7 billion to the company’s prior owners, the Barclay family.
The Barclay family offered to buy back the Telegraph and the weekly magazine, The Spectator, also seized by Lloyds, the report said, but their $775 million bid was rejected and The Spectator is expected to be sold off in a separate auction, according to The Financial Times.
Currently Ken Griffin has no media holdings and any bid for the Telegraph would be the first time he has personally invested in the industry, the Financial Times reported.
Griffin, 54, is worth roughly $35.4 billion, according to Forbes, which ranked him at No. 35 on its 2023 Billionaires list, making him the world’s richest hedge fund manager.
“I care deeply about individual rights and freedom, economic policies that encourage prosperity and upward mobility, all children having access to a high-quality education, ensuring our communities are safe, and a strong national defense,” Griffin said last week, the Telegraph reported.
The hedge fund manager is depicted in the meme-stock movie “Dumb Money,” with Citadel profiting as a market maker during the so called “meme stock” craze in 2021.
Marshall is working with a former executive from the Daily Mail and General Trust, the owner of the U.K. paper the Daily Mail. Marshall is also the owner of the right-leaning TV channel GB News.
Other potential bidders include DMGT, former Telegraph editor Sir William Lewis, and Czech billionaire Damily Kertinsky, and News UK, owned by News Corp
NWSA,
controlled by the Murdoch family, though the FT reported that Rupert Murdoch would be most interested in the Spectator magazine.
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