Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (): I wish to update the House on
the sale of the Telegraph Media Group. As I set out in my Written
Ministerial Statement on 17 December 2025(opens in a new
tab), I received a formal request from the representatives of
RB Investco Limited, the current owners of the call option to
purchase Telegraph Media Group Holdings, to allow RB Investco Ltd
to derogate from the Public Interest Merger Reference (Telegraph
Media Group Limited) (Pre-emptive Action) Order 2024, in order to
sell their call option to Daily Mail and General Trust. The 2024
Order prevents the parties to the transaction from taking actions
which may prejudice a reference to the Competition and Markets
Authority and/or Ofcom for them to be able to carry out
regulatory scrutiny. I am currently considering whether to grant
the request to derogate from the Order and will update Parliament
once this decision has been made.
Following a thorough consideration of the terms set out in the
derogation request and independent research, my Department has
today written to the current and proposed owners of the Telegraph
Media Group on my behalf to inform them that I am ‘minded to'
intervene on the following public interest grounds specified in
section 58 of the Enterprise Act 2002:
This will enable the necessary regulatory scrutiny to commence.
These letters, and other relevant updates, will be published on
gov.uk(opens in a new tab).
I have also considered the new merger under the Foreign State
Influence regime, as specified in Chapter 3A of the Enterprise
Act 2002, and I am not minded to intervene. As set out in the
Enterprise Act, if any new information comes to light which
indicates influence from a foreign state, I must intervene.
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 26 January 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.
Following these reports, I would need to decide whether to refer
the matter for a more detailed investigation by the CMA under
section 45 of the Enterprise Act 2002.
I will update Parliament on my final decision at the earliest
opportunity.
