Chelsea FC owner may make bid for owner of Scotsman and Yorkshire Post

Chelsea FC owner and chair Todd Boehly is considering making a bid for the owner of the Scotsman and Yorkshire Post, in a move seen as a precursor to making a potential offer for The Telegraph.

National World, the London-listed owner of more than 100 regional titles, said it had received confirmation that Boehly-controlled Eldridge Media Holdings (EMH) is considering making a proposal to buy the company.

Boehly has been in talks with David Montgomery, the executive chair of National World and former boss of the parent of the Mirror, about a potential tie-up to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph which has been up for sale for almost two years.

Montgomery’s National World, which was an underbidder in the protracted auction of the Telegraph titles, is in the process of a shareholder-approved £65m takeover by its largest investor, Media Concierge.

“The company acknowledges, for the purposes of the takeover code, that it is in receipt of an approach from EMH regarding a possible offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of the company,” said National World in a statement to the stock market on Friday.

“The National World board will consider the terms of any proposal put forward by EMH that may deliver superior value to National World shareholders than the scheme [of arrangement relating to the current sale process]”.

National World’s shares rose 7% on Friday, valuing the company at £62m.

Boehly and Montgomery have been in talks about a potential deal that would combine National World and the Telegraph titles, and also involve other third-party backers, at a price below the £500m-plus level being sought by the Telegraph’s current backers.

RedBird IMI, which derives most of its funding from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City football club, paid £600m to take control of Telegraph Media Group in November 2023 from the Barclay family.

However, RedBird IMI was forced to put the titles back up for sale last spring after the British government published legislation to block foreign states or associated individuals from owning newspaper assets in the UK.

Dovid Efune, the British owner of the New York Sun, had several weeks of exclusivity late last year to push through a £550m deal to buy the titles.

However, Efune has so far failed to raise the financial backing to get the deal over the line and RedBird IMI is pursuing talks with other potential bidders.