Abu Dhabi investment group IMI and the US private equity firm Carlyle have agreed a new debt funding package of £125 million for the Barclay family’s Very Group, the retail and financial services business.
The Barclays, who previously owned the Telegraph Media group but lost control of the publisher of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph titles and The Spectator after its then lender Lloyds Banking Group took control of the debt last year, said Carlyle will provide £85 million and IMI the remainder. Rani Raad, the chief executive of IMI, will sit on the board of Very Group.
IMI is seeking to gain control of the Telegraph titles by refinancing the Barclay family’s outstanding loans from Lloyds Bank. The Abu Dhabi fund formed a joint venture with the US private equity firm RedBird to secure the deal, and is now seeking to convert those loans into equity. However, its debt-for-equity swap is under investigation by the government over concerns of possible Abu Dhabi censorship of journalists at the Telegraph titles, despite assurances that the fund would maintain the newspaper’s editorial independence.
Aidan Barclay, son of the late Sir David Barclay, will become non-executive chairman of Very while the company searches for a permanent chairman to replace Dirk Van den Berghe who is stepping down. The group reported that its UK revenues had grown by 2.7 per cent in the second quarter to £1.06 billion.
Aidan Barclay said: “Carlyle and IMI provide the support of two long-term, experienced institutional sponsors that understand our business extremely well. Their commitment underlines the confidence they have in the group, and their contribution to the board will be invaluable as we look to the future.”
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Very is a value retailer formed by the Barclays following their acquisitions of the Littlewoods catalogue business and the home shopping division of Great Universal Stores. The retailer offers consumers “buy now, pay later” finance on its range of clothing, home and beauty products.
Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay started out as property entrepreneurs and went on to build a business empire spanning newspapers, real estate, retail and hotels. The family has now started offloading assets, including Yodel, the logistics group, as well as their media titles.
