Lachlan Murdoch’s bid for Australian media company Consolidated Media Holdings will be scrutinised by competition regulators because of his links to News Corp, according to the Financial Times.

Lachlan – Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son and a non-executive director of News Corp – told the paper he was confident the £1.5bn joint bid with James Packer would be rubber-stamped by the Australian competition watchdog.

News of the deal sent shares in Consolidated Media Holdings up 9.6 per cent yesterday.