Axel Springer Completes £575m Takeover of The Telegraph

The European media group Axel Springer has completed its £575m takeover of the Telegraph, ending three tumultuous years of uncertainty over the future ownership of the 171-year-old titles.

The Germany-headquartered company, which gazumped the owner of the Daily Mail by tabling a blockbuster offer at the 11th hour, said it had now received all regulatory approvals in the UK, Ireland and Austria to take full control of Telegraph Media Group (TMG).

“Today is a day we have worked towards for a long time, and one we will always remember,” said Mathias Döpfner, its chief executive and controlling shareholder.

“Axel Springer and the Telegraph share strong commitments to freedom, values, a tradition of embracing and pioneering technological change, and an entrepreneurial will to actively shape the future.”

The 63-year-old, who has run Axel Springer since 2002, lost out on a previous attempt to buy TMG in 2004 when he was beaten by the Barclay brothers’ £665m offer. He was also pipped by an 11th-hour £844m bid from Nikkei, Japan’s largest media group, to buy the Financial Times in 2015.

The Telegraph will join a stable of media brands including the German titles Bild, Europe’s biggest selling newspaper, and Die Welt, as well as the digital outlets Politico and Business Insider.

Döpfner has said that he intends to leverage his digital assets to push the Telegraph’s digital transformation and expand into the US. His stated aim is to invest in the Telegraph to make it the “leading centre-right media outlet in the English-speaking world”.

“This creates a strong foundation for further accelerating our AI-powered digital transformation,” he said on Tuesday. “Together we can lead the next generation of trusted media.”

Döpfner has said the editorial independence of titles was “sacrosanct”, backing the current suite of executives: Chris Evans, the editor-in-chief of the Telegraph, and Allister Heath, the Sunday Telegraph editor.

“Axel Springer and we have much in common,” Evans said. “We share the same values. We also share the same vision and the same ambition. We believe there are many opportunities to grow the Telegraph, both in the UK and overseas.

“After three difficult years without owners, we look forward to stoking up the engines and setting forth on a new voyage.”

However, while Döpfner had also given his backing to Anna Jones, the chief executive of TMG, she has become the first top executive to depart after the completion of the deal.

Axel Springer has appointed Carolin Hulshoff Pol, a company veteran who has been running Bild since 2004, while Jones will join the board of the German company’s affiliate marketing network, Awin.

Patrick Wehrmann, another Springer veteran, has been named as group chief financial officer at TMG, replacing Catherine Southgate, who has held the role on an interim basis.

The sale of the newspapers was kicked off in 2023 when the Barclay family lost control of the group over £1.16bn of unpaid debts owed to Lloyds bank.

The joint venture RedBird IMI – which is 75% controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and owner of Manchester City – took control of the publishing group after agreeing to pay the Barclays’ debts.

However, it was forced to put the titles back up for sale after the British government passed a law blocking foreign states or associated individuals from owning newspaper assets in the UK. There is now a 15% cap in place after the introduction of the foreign state influence regime.

A consortium led by Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, the junior partner in RedBird IMI, tabled a £500m deal for the titles last year. However, it pulled out in November, and Daily Mail & General Trust struck its deal later that month.

DMGT had been close to taking control of the Telegraph titles, having been given permission by the UK government to take over the right-to-buy option from RedBird IMI.

However, Axel Springer swooped, tabling an offer at a £75m premium to that of DMGT which, combined with a straightforward regulatory process, was accepted by RedBird IMI.