LONDON — U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said Tuesday she will allow Axel Springer’s purchase of the U.K.’s Telegraph Media Group to proceed, a key step toward the legacy newspaper’s change of ownership.
In a written statement to the U.K. parliament, Nandy said she is “currently not minded to intervene in this merger” between Axel Springer, which owns POLITICO, and the Telegraph “on the basis of the evidence available to me at this time.”
That approval is a “significant milestone toward completing the transaction,” Axel Springer said in a statement. The deal still requires regulatory approvals in Ireland and Austria, but completion is expected in the second quarter of this year, the statement added.
Chief Executive Mathias Döpfner said: “We are pleased to have received UK government approval to proceed with this acquisition. After a long period of uncertainty, we can confirm that we will invest significantly in The Telegraph’s editorial excellence and international growth.”
The U.K.’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport had said the German media conglomerate’s acquisition of the right-leaning British newspaper would be assessed on competition and foreign influence grounds when the deal was announced in March.
Axel Springer wasn’t the only media company interested in purchasing the Telegraph, as the Daily Mail & General Trust had proposed a £500 million takeover.