Update on the sale of the Telegraph

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HLWS1261

Update on the sale of the Telegraph

Statement made on 20 January 2026

Statement UIN HLWS1261

Statement made by

Baroness Twycross

Minister for Museums, Heritage and Gambling, and DCMS Lords Minister

Labour

Life peer

Lords

Statement

I am repeating the following Written Ministerial Statement made today in the other place by my Right Honourable Friend, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy MP:
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
, 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:
Sufficient plurality of views;
Sufficient plurality of persons with control.
This will enable the necessary regulatory scrutiny to commence. These letters, and other relevant updates, will be published on
gov.uk
.
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.

Statement from

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Linked statements

This statement has also been made in the House of Commons

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Update on the sale of the Telegraph

Lisa Nandy

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Labour, Wigan

Statement made 20 January 2026

HCWS1263

Commons