The Telegraph newspaper took a £278 million hit last year on a loan withdrawn by its billionaire owners, the Barclay family, which it said is unlikely to be repaid. In its annual accounts, the media company said the loan had pushed it to a £244.6 million loss for the 2023 calendar year.
That is despite the news group growing its turnover 5% year-on-year to £268 million, helped by a sharp uplift in digital subscriptions and advertising income. Telegraph Media Group, which also owns the Spectator magazine and the Chelsea Magazine Company, has been gripped by an ownership crisis since last year. Later in 2023, RedBird IMI, an Abu Dhabi-backed fund, reached a deal with the Barclay family to take control of the group by paying off the debts.
However, in March, the Government said it would bring forward legislation that would block such state-backed takeover deals in the industry. As a result, a sale process remains ongoing, creating what new chief executive Anna Jones, who joined in January, called “a backdrop of uncertainty surrounding its future ownership”. The £278 million hit revealed on Wednesday is part of a loan extracted by the Barclay family, which is understood to have been deemed unrecoverable.
The Telegraph’s accounts said that as part of the attempted sale, it carried out a “detailed review” of historic transactions between TMG and “related parties”. The review found “potential irregularities in the recording of such transactions”. “There is a .