Telegraph sale completed after legal ruling

The owner of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph today said it had completed the sale of the newspapers to the Barclay brothers.

The US media group Hollinger International said it had sold the Telegraph Group to the Barclays' company, Press Acquisitions, for £729.5 million.

The completion of the deal represents the culmination of months of bitter wrangling over the future of the newspapers.

Yesterday, their former owner, newspaper baron Lord Black, failed in a last-ditch attempt to overturn Hollinger's deal with the Barclays.

A court in the United States threw out Lord Black's motion to hold up the transaction so that it could be subjected to a shareholder vote.

Hollinger International today said it was delighted to finalise the deal, which it said would maximise value for its shareholders.

"The sale price reflects the appreciation of the high quality papers that comprise the Telegraph group and the great demand we saw for them in the market," said Hollinger International's interim chairman and chief executive Gordon Paris.

"It is clear that the new owners of the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Spectator are committed to ensuring the long term success of these publications."

Hollinger will retain titles including the Chicago Sun-Times, a large number of local papers in the Chicago area and the Jerusalem Post.

A statement from the Barclays said: "This brings to an end months of uncertainty for the Telegraph Group, its titles and employees."

Hollinger International last month said it had accepted a £665 million offer from the Barclays for the Telegraph titles.

Lord Black stepped down as chairman and chief executive of Hollinger International last year amid a scandal over payments to himself and his associates that shareholders said were unauthorised.

He is the main subject of a 1.25 billion-dollar lawsuit from Hollinger International, which claims he used the newspaper as "a cow to be milked" of cash.

However, Black retains voting control over Hollinger International through a Canadian holding company called Hollinger Inc, which holds a 68% voting interest in the group through a special class of supervoting shares.

A shareholder vote would have given Lord Black an effective veto over the sale of the Telegraph titles to the Barclays.

But in a strongly-worded ruling, Judge Leo Strine of the Delaware Chancery Court threw out Lord Black's argument that the Telegraph made up "substantially all" of Hollinger International's assets and therefore would have triggered a shareholder vote.

Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay also own The Business, Scotland on Sunday and The Scotsman.