Express owner bids for Telegraph
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The Daily Telegraph headquarters in London, one of the titles put up for sale by Hollinger International.
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LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British press baron Richard Desmond, owner of the Express newspaper, has made an indicative bid worth more than £500 million ($936 million) for the Telegraph newspapers, an industry source said on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Desmond confirmed he had placed a bid to buy the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph titles from Chicago-based Hollinger International, and said he also wanted to buy Hollinger's stake in West Ferry Printers, which prints the Telegraph and other major UK broadsheets.
The Telegraph has been put up for sale by Hollinger International following an increasingly bitter dispute between itself and its ousted Chief Executive Conrad Black.
Black, who is a member of Britain's house of Lords, was ousted as top dog in January after the discovery millions of dollars in payments to him and his associates that Hollinger International says were not approved by its board.
Black responded by striking a deal to sell Hollinger Inc., which owns 30 percent of Hollinger International and 73 percent of the voting rights, to Britain's billionaire Barclay brothers, Frederick and David, who already own The Scotsman newspaper and London's Ritz Hotel.
Hollinger International in turn has sued Black and is taking him to court on February 18 in Delaware to try, among other things, to block the sale to the Barclay brothers.
But Desmond believes the irrevocable agreement between Black and the Barclays constitutes a change of control at Hollinger International, thereby triggering a clause in the West Ferry agreement and giving him the right to acquire the company's 50 percent stake.
A spokesman for Desmond said the publisher now had 42 days to remove the Hollinger directors from the West Ferry board, but he said this could only happen if the court decides whether there has been a change of control at Hollinger.
The court hearing is due to last until February 20 with a verdict expected on February 27.
As well as Desmond, several other parties, including Terry Smith, head of stockbroker Collins Stewart, and private equity firms Apax Partners and Candover Investments are also set to submit offers for the Telegraph by a deadline of 1700 GMT on Thursday.
In addition, Britain's Daily Mail & General Trust, the Washington Post, Tribune Co., Gannett Co. Inc. and other private equity firms such as 3i and Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst are also expected to place offers.
Fears of a bidding war knocked Daily Mail's shares on Wednesday, traders said. The stock lost three percent by 1100 GMT, the biggest faller on the FTSE 100.
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