Bids in for Telegraph newspapers

A US court blocked Lord Black from selling his stake

A deadline set by investment bank Lazard for bidders to put forward offers for the newspaper assets of Hollinger International has expired.

Lazard sought bids for the whole of the company or individual parts, such as the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper and the UK's Daily and Sunday Telegraphs.

Likely bidders included the Daily Mail, Express Newspapers owner Richard Desmond and the Barclay brothers.

UK stockbroker Collins Stewart was also thought a possible bidder.

Previous estimates have put the Telegraph group price at between £550m and £600m.

Hollinger International put the assets up for sale after the discovery of millions of dollars in allegedly unauthorised payments to its then chief executive Lord Conrad Black.

He was subsequently ousted, and a deal by him to sell the Telegraph newspapers to the Barclay Brothers, who own the Scotsman and The Business papers, was torpedoed by a US court in Delaware.

Lazard has indicated that it would prefer to see an all-in bid for the whole of the Hollinger assets.

Last week Richard Desmond, owner of the UK's Daily Express newspaper, resubmitted an offer for the Telegraph.

Venture capital group

Offers were expected from a string of other newspapers and private equity firms, who could submit bids for some or all of the assets.

They included Daily Mail & General Trust, which has teamed up with venture capital group Cinven.

Other reports have named German publishing giant Axel Springer AG as a possible bidder.

Meanwhile, Hollinger International is continuing to look into payments made to ex-directors including Lord Black.

Through Canada-based Hollinger Inc, Lord Black holds more than 70% of the voting rights in Chicago-based Hollinger International.

Hollinger Inc said on 23 March that it had managed to pull together a payment of more than $7m to avoid defaulting on $120m in debt, by selling a small proportion of its stake in International.

It had missed a payment due on 1 March, but said it had till the end of the month to make good.