Christopher Williams
Fri, 16 February 2024
The Telegraph
The United Arab Emirates has pledged unmatchable investment in The Telegraph if its planned takeover is allowed, in its first public comments on the controversy over its potential threat to press freedom.
Writing in The Telegraph, Rani Raad, the chief executive of International Media Investments (IMI), the UAE company providing 75pc of the funding for RedBird IMI’s planned deal, said that “any other bid simply cannot offer anything like the financial security and investment we can”.
Rival bidders including a consortium of the hedge fund billionaires Sir Paul Marshall and Ken Griffin, and the publisher of The Daily Mail remain interested in an acquisition of The Telegraph if RedBird IMI’s complex debt deal with the Barclay family fails.
Mr Raad added: “RedBird IMI intends to grow The Telegraph brand precisely at a time when in the UK and the US the media industry seems to be in a spiral of retreat, redundancies, and spending cuts.
“To be clear: as media owners, we will be doing just the opposite, which must surely be welcome news to the management and staff of The Telegraph.”
Mr Raad, chief executive of International Media Investments (IMI), says that ‘any other bid simply cannot offer anything like the financial security and investment we can’ - Rani Raad
Despite its wealth, senior editorial managers and writers have raised concerns over the involvement of IMI, which is effectively an arm of the state. It is controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City.
The proposed takeover is currently in limbo pending an investigation of its potential threat to the public interest by Ofcom. The media regulator is scheduled to deliver its report to the Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer by 11 March. She could then order months of further investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which could ultimately lead to the deal being blocked.
Mr Raad, a former CNN executive and close ally of Jeff Zucker, the head of RedBird IMI, again set out undertakings which they argue will protect The Telegraph from any UAE interference. They include an editorial trust board and legal guarantees that IMI will be a passive investor only.
RedBird, a US private equity firm providing 25pc of the £600m price, would be responsible for the management of The Telegraph.
Mr Raad said that The Times editorial board, established when Rupert Murdoch bought the newspaper in 1981 and intended to protect it from his influence, was viewed as ineffective until it was scrapped in 2022. But he argued that the Telegraph editorial trust board would have real powers backed by the law.
Mr Raad said: “We all know that in the past promises were made, only to be broken almost before the ink on the newsprint was dry.
“We have learned the lessons of News Corp, when promises were made that were never fully kept about The Times. Ours meet the far higher standard of enforceability.”
IMI faces cross-party opposition in Parliament, including from Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, who has warned that state ownership of a significant news outlet would set “dangerous precedent for other democracies”.
This week Fraser Nelson, the editor of The Spectator, appeared before a Lords select committee. He urged an amendment to the Media Bill, which is making its way through Parliament, to outlaw media ownership by foreign states.
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