The private equity group, which runs the Six Nations tournament and English Premiership rugby, is considering a bid for The Telegraph as the deadline for the first round of bidding for the newspaper group approaches this week.
CVC Capital Partners, which manages 186 billion euros (156 billion pounds) in assets and floated 15 billion euros on Amsterdam’s Euronext in April, has not finalised its plans and may not submit a formal proposal.
CVC is one of Europe’s best-known buyout groups, with investments in major brands such as Lipton tea and Swiss watchmaker Breitling, and was previously in talks with Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail, about backing a bid for The Telegraph, which David and Frederick Barclay won in 2004.
Mr Rothermere withdrew from the bid last week, fearing the deal would embroil his newspaper group in a long, complicated battle to overcome competitive and political hurdles.
The potential takeover bid by CVC, first reported by The Telegraph, is said to be structured to support the newspaper group’s current management team.
CVC’s interests are led by its sports, media and entertainment team, which has also secured significant stakes in the media rights to the United Rugby Championship, which features the top rugby clubs from Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy and South Africa, as well as La Liga, Spain’s top soccer league.
This week it emerged that Sir Paul Marshall, the libertarian backer of GB News and the Unhard website, is also reconsidering his sole bid for the Telegraph. He could seek to join a larger consortium to buy the papers, or focus his attention on buying The Spectator, which is also part of the group.
Other companies on the shortlist include David Montgomery’s media group National World, Lord Saatchi, the former co-chair of the Conservative Party and co-founder of advertising group M&C Saatchi, and Belgian media group Mediahaus.
It is unclear whether CVC’s interest extends to the whole media group, which includes the Sunday Telegraph, or just the core Daily Telegraph title and website.
In June it was revealed that parent company Telegraph Media Group had made a loss last year after setting aside around £280 million to cover loans to the Berkeley family that may never be repaid.
The group said the provisions would result in a loss of £244.6 million in 2023, compared with a profit of £33.3 million the previous year, despite a strong financial performance.
In April, Redbird IMI, a consortium backed by UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and US investment firm Redbird Capital Partners, was forced to put the newspapers up for sale again after the British government published legislation banning foreign governments or related individuals from owning newspaper assets in the UK.
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Redbird IMI took effective control of the Telegraph and Spectator newspapers in December after paying off the Barclay family’s debts, which included £600 million in loans to the newspapers.
RedBird IMI has set the deadline for first round bidding for the Telegraph and Spectator titles to be on Friday night, with the final round of bidding due to take place later in the summer.
The consortium says interest is “very strong” but has indicated that if it cannot recoup the 600 million pounds it paid it may consider spinning off the business into a separate company controlled by RedBird Capital to comply with foreign ownership restrictions.
CVC declined to comment.
