Desmond quits Telegraph battle

The Express newspaper baron is poised to withdraw from the auction

Daily Express tycoon Richard Desmond has pulled out of the race for the Daily Telegraph, amid talk that the asking price has gone beyond £600m.

"We didn't want to move forward. We were in the bidding process to buy a business, not a trophy asset," a spokesman for Mr Desmond said.

His estimated bid for the Telegraph stable was £550m.

Others still in the running include the Daily Mail group, the Barclay Brothers and other investment vehicles.

Bid deadline passes

Investment bank Lazard is auctioning off the whole of the newspaper assets of Hollinger International 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 vetoed by a US court.

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

The deadline for bidders passed earlier this week.

Now the Barclays Brothers are back in the race, while Daily Mail & General Trust has teamed up with venture capital group Cinven.

Other reports have named German publishing giant Axel Springer AG as a possible bidder as well as Candover and 3i.

But Mr Desmond may still have a card to play in the bid battle as his company, Northern and Shell, is the part owner of the Telegraph's West Ferry printing plant.

A spokesman for Northern and Shell said on Friday that it "looks forward to talking to Telegraph's eventual owner about the printing arrangements at West Ferry."