Culture Secretary ‘minded’ to look into Daily Mail owner’s £500m Telegraph deal

The Culture Secretary has said she is “minded” to investigate The Telegraph’s proposed £500 million takeover by the owner of Daily Mail over competition concerns.

In November, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) agreed to purchase the Telegraph from RedBird IMI after an attempted purchase by the Abu Dhabi-backed investment firm was blocked by the then Tory government.

Last month, DMGT confirmed that its had secured funding to allow it to push forward with the deal.

On Tuesday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she has told the Telegraph and its proposed new owner that she is “minded to intervene” on the move on public interest grounds.

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.