Advertising tycoon Lord Saatchi’s bid for The Telegraph has been rejected after the Abu Dhabi fund selling the newspaper said it was not a serious offer.
Lord Saatchi tabled an indicative £350m bid alongside Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a former director of The Economist Group.
However, his approach has not made it through to the second round of an auction, which is being overseen by bankers at Robey Warshaw and Raine Group.
Lord Saatchi and Lady de Rothschild said: “We are sorry RedBird IMI overpaid with £600m for the Telegraph. We are offering £350m plus further payments dependent on performance.
“Our bid is not the biggest – but it is the best. Whatever happens, this important national asset should end up in safe hands for the long term.”
RedBird IMI, which saw its takeover of The Telegraph blocked by ministers earlier this year, hit back at the bidders.
A spokesman told Sky News, which first reported the rejection: “They never signed an NDA. They never made a serious bid. And they haven’t been invited into the second round.
“So, with all due respect, no one takes Maurice or his views on any of this seriously.”
Lord Saatchi, a Tory peer whose ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi was behind Margaret Thatcher’s famous “Labour Isn’t Working” campaign, is the latest prospective bidder to exit the process.
Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere withdrew from the auction amid concerns any deal would face scrutiny on competition and media plurality grounds.
Local newspaper owner David Montgomery and Belgian publisher Mediahuis are among other suitors to have expressed an interest in the newspaper, while former cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi is also said to be assembling a bid.
Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund tycoon behind GB News, is understood to still be interested in buying The Telegraph.
However, the viability of such a bid has been cast into doubt after he emerged as the frontrunner to take control of The Spectator, which is also part of the auction, in a standalone deal.
The latest auction is the second time The Telegraph and The Spectator have been put up for sale in little over a year.
RedBird IMI, which is majority owned by the United Arab Emirates, swooped on the titles in December through a complex deal to repay £1.2bn in debt owed to Lloyds Banking Group by previous owners the Barclay family.
However, the takeover was derailed when ministers intervened to ban the sale of British newspapers to foreign states amid widespread concern about the impact on press freedom.
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