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Former UK chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Egyptian-born British billionaire Mohamed Mansour are in advanced talks to join the US-led consortium to buy the Telegraph, according to people familiar with the matter.
Sir Mohamed is a former Conservative party Treasurer and has been linked with previous bids for the broadsheet newspaper with Zahawi, who maintains close links with IMI, the Abu Dhabi fund that is an owner of the Telegraph with US-based investment group RedBird.
The additional political and financial heft from the pair comes as exclusivity talks with New York Sun owner Dovid Efune over the $550mn acquisition of the Telegraph end next Friday at 5pm GMT.
There is also the possibility that the exclusivity period might be extended, people said. There have been questions over whether Efune has the financial backing to complete the deal in recent weeks.
Efune is in talks with other US-based investment groups to support his bid, according to those close to the negotiations, in what could be a decisive week in the 16-month battle for the 169-year-old conservative British national newspaper.
A person familiar with the status of the financing discussions said: “There is strong momentum in the financing consortium and high confidence a deal will be reached given the status of these talks. Between debt and equity sources, there are dozens of funding parties involved in these discussions.”
Efune beat competition for the newspaper from publisher David Montgomery’s National World, as well as hedge fund boss Paul Marshall, in the bidding battle for the newspaper this autumn.
Zahawi has tried to enter the bidding to acquire the newspaper before, and has held talks with potential investors.
A deal of more than £550mn would be a success for RedBird IMI, which was blocked from completing the deal to acquire the Telegraph after UK politicians raised concerns about a national newspaper being partly owned by a group backed by Abu Dhabi.
RedBird IMI acquired the right to own the Telegraph and its sister magazine The Spectator for £600mn last year after the Barclay family lost control of the titles. It sold the Spectator to Marshall in a £100mn deal this summer.
Efune is the publisher of The New York Sun but is relatively unknown in the UK despite being born in Manchester. He was previously editor-in-chief of the Algemeiner, a Jewish publication.
