If the Telegraph goes to an open auction, there are likely to be trade bidders who will be focused on the profit and loss account and not over-bidding like the Barclays did. They will sweat the asset.

There will also be other bidders who will view it as a prestige trophy asset giving them influence over public life and politics. Who can afford to pay the price?

Some names in the frame for forming a syndicate include billionaires Peter Hargreaves, Peter Cruddas and Paul Marshall. Arron Banks might be tempted back into the fray in a syndicate. Maybe Narayana Murthy might fancy diversifying out of information technology into media and making the paper’s editorial line more sympathetic to his son-in-law? A look down the list of big Tory donors might give a clue as to potential members of a syndicate…

The Spectator could be spun out from the Telegraph – it makes solid profits (circa £2 million), and could function as a stand alone asset. A management buyout, perhaps with external financial backers, could be a possibility. Lord Ashcroft was rumoured to have contemplated offering £20 million for the magazine some years ago,  Guido suspects it will go for more like double that to a trophy buyer…

The Times is reporting Lloyds has appointed AlixPartners as receivers to B.UK, the Barclay family’s holding company that controls shares in Telegraph Media Group and Spectator (1828) Limited. The Telegraph and the Speccie are about to be up for sale…

Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are reportedly on the shortlist to handle the sale, according to Sky News. Lloyds are said to value the Telegraph titles at a very optimistic £600 million. Time to open the wallet…

Both the Telegraph and the Spectator could possibly be on the market “within days” as Lloyds Banking Group looks to recover debts from owners, the Barclay family. Sky News reports that Lloyds intends to select an investment bank to kick off an “immediate” auction process, with one source suggesting AlixPartners had already been appointed.

Although details are shady, reports suggest the loan owed by the Telegraph’s parent company is in the “hundreds of millions of pounds”. A spokesman for the Telegraph Media Group boasted of strong subscriber numbers, now reaching 750,000, and warned that “speculation about the business entering administration is unfounded and irresponsible”. As a spokesman for the Barclay family speculated about the business entering administration:

“The loans in question are related to the family’s overarching ownership structure of its media assets. They do not, in any way, affect the operations or financial stability of Telegraph Media Group. The businesses within our portfolio continue to trade strongly”.

The Barclay brothers paid £665 million for the Telegraph in 2004. On a commercial basis, it’s probably now worth perhaps half that…

UPDATE: AlixPartners have been appointed as receivers to the Barclay family’s holding company. Read more here…

Greek-born Taki Theodoracopulos, 86, has denied a historic charge of attempted rape alleged to have taken place in 2009. A British woman has accused the legendary Spectator High Life columnist of attempted rape on a ski weekend at his chalet in Gstaad in the Swiss Alps, reporting the allegation to the Metropolitan Police in January 2019.

Responding to the allegations, Taki told The Guardian: “Not only do I deny everything, I hardly know the lady… I’m 86 years old and I’ve never been accused of anything like that.” He would have been 72 in 2009, which would make it some feat.

Taki, who lives in New York, attended a hearing in Switzerland about the allegations in July 2022 with his wife and lawyer. Taki was formally charged in February this year and will stand trial in Switzerland. 

Taki added: “It’s unfortunate because I happen to like and admire women, the female sex, very much and it’s certainly not the kind of thing I would ever do, or anybody in my family would ever do.” Taki did a three-month sentence in Pentonville for possessing cocaine in 1984…

Unlike Elon’s Twitter, Facebook has no such love of free speech. Today the Spectator attempted its usual practice of running their latest front cover as an advert. This week’s cover takes a light-hearted pop at Joe Biden; captioned “Six more years” it has an elderly President holding up five fingers. Pretty mild by The Speccie’s standards…

Facebook has, however, decided to block the advert. Even on an appeal, on the basis they’re a political magazine, the social media site rejected the advert.

As editor Fraser Nelson points out, it appears that splashes aimed at Trump, Boris and Truss – to name just a few – are fine. Biden appears to be a protected character. Unfortunately for the Spectator, the recent Steerpike article entitled ‘The tragic embarrassment of Sir Nick Clegg’ won’t help their cause…

Every winner at last night’s Spectator Parliamentarian awards gave a decent speech, though Guido tips his hat to Theresa May for bringing the house down with this one. No wonder she was up there to accept the award for “Speech of the Year”.

“Piers told the story of having spoken to me for 20 minutes at a Spectator party, gone home, and said he couldn’t remember a single thing I had told him. I don’t know if it’s any consolation, Piers, but I couldn’t remember a single thing you asked me… indeed I don’t remember speaking to you at all. 

Of course that hasn’t stopped him from constantly asking me to do an interview. But I guess that’s just because it’s hard to get guests on TalkTV.”

Ambulance for Piers…