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The Barclay family has pledged its remaining primary UK businesses as security to loans provided by IMI, the Abu Dhabi investment fund, as part of the deal to buy the Telegraph, according to filings.
At least half a dozen companies within the Barclay family empire — including the Very Group, the Barclays’ online retailer and financial services company — show new charges linked to the IMI loan agreement, according to filings at Companies House, the UK’s corporate registry. The charges have been entered against a range of holding companies related to the retail group.
Lloyds Banking Group pushed the Telegraph newspaper group into administration last year over unpaid debts by the Barclays of about £1.1bn, leaving the UK bank to conduct a sale of the right-leaning broadsheet that had been owned by the family since 2004.
RedBird IMI, the vehicle backed by IMI, short-circuited this sales process by offering the family money to pay the Lloyds loan back in full. About half of this money was through a convertible loan for the national newspaper, and half in a loan of similar size to the family from IMI relating to other parts of the Barclay family business empire.
Debt experts have questioned what collateral would be used to secure the IMI loan, with a complicated financing structure at the Very Group that includes securitised bonds, as well as a £200mn loan from Carlyle, the private equity group, that was used to pay off debt owed to Greensill Capital in 2021.
A person close to the process confirmed that the security charges were linked to the IMI loan, giving the Abu Dhabi investor the right to take control of parts of the family business in the event of a default of the loan. Parts of the group have also been used as collateral for the Carlyle loan. The family and RedBird IMI declined to comment.
The move comes as the Barclay family have scrambled to sell off assets to raise cash, including the Spectator magazine’s headquarters in Westminster, and Yodel, the parcel delivery group.
The family still technically own the Telegraph after repaying the Lloyds loan, although they cannot exert any influence over the company given the convertible loan agreement that has left RedBird IMI in effective control of the newspaper.
The Telegraph deal is being held up after a second regulatory investigation on public interest grounds by Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority was launched by culture secretary Lucy Frazer.
The findings of these investigations are due about early March. Analysts now expect that Frazer will refer the deal to the CMA for a more in-depth probe, given the scale of public-interest concerns despite undertakings by RedBird IMI over editorial independence.
The deal has met with considerable opposition among members of the Conservative party in particular.
