Telegraph Media Group accounts, filed this week, showed that the company had crashed into the red with a record £244.6m loss, despite a 35 per cent rise in operating profit.said the “black hole” was the result of company loans extracted by the Barclay family which are “unlikely ever to be repaid”.
Specialists from HMRC and the National Crime Agency, which acts as an information clearing house for financial authorities including the Serious Fraud Office, have been in contact with the company and its advisers, TMG said. It added that it is not clear if investigations have been launched. A spokesperson said: “The Barclay family is proud of its track record of investment in Telegraph Media Group, which under its ownership has been transformed into a successful digital and print media brand, with over one million subscribers.”
The ongoing sale process has created what new chief executive Anna Jones, who joined in January, called “a backdrop of uncertainty surrounding its future ownership”.are due to receive an Information Memorandum, signally the relaunch of the process, this month.