GORDON PARIS, chief executive of Hollinger International, left his Claridge’s suite last night and flew back to New York with two separate sale contracts for the Telegraph Group.
Mr Paris asked the two remaining bidders to “re-re-re-re-confirm” their offers and sign heads of terms that he can take back to the board of Hollinger International, publisher of The Daily Telegraph, to sign one of them.
A source close to one of the two bidders said: “From what we understand, Gordon Paris will take back the two contracts and ask the board, ‘Which one do you want to go for?’.”
The two bids — from the Barclay brothers and a UK-US venture capital consortium of 3i and Veronis Suhler Stevenson — are thought to be in the range of £660 million and £690 million.
Although it was not clear at the end of the working day who was ahead, the expectation from both sides was that the Barclays would bid whatever it took to see off their private equity rivals. A final decision is expected within days.
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The venture capital groups have been unsettled by disclosures earlier this week that the Chicago Sun-Times, another Hollinger title, had artificially boosted its circulation figures. Although Hollinger said there were no such problems with the Telegraph, the 3i-VSS bid team is thought to have sought further reassurance.
Yesterday was believed to be the last opportunity that the two bidders had to raise their respective bids — although Lazard, the bank handling the auction, has made similar promises to both parties before.
Earlier in the day, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) and its venture capital partner, CVC, confirmed that they had dropped out of the auction. Peter Williams, DMGT finance director, said: “This is 100 per cent about price.”
DMGT declined to be drawn on the level of its bid, but it is thought to have been up to £650 million, according to sources familiar with the offer. The company’s shares rose 10½p to 703½p.
Mr Paris has insisted that the two remaining bids be unconditional, which means that a buyer will have to bear the risk of their bids being blocked by competition authorities — although neither buyer is thought to face any serious difficulties with the regulators, Either buyer would be able to assume management control immediately on completion of the financial terms of the deal, which means that new management could be in place within days.
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Hollinger International put the Telegraph Group up for sale six months ago after non-executive directors ousted Hollinger’s founder and controlling shareholder, Lord Black of Crossharbour, as chairman and chief executive following the discovery of unauthorised payments to him.