Axel Springer handed Telegraph Media Group a £7m loan months before it agreed to take over as the business swung into a negative cash flow, according to the newspaper.
Telegraph Media Group Holdings moved into a pre-tax loss of £3.9m in 2025 before it was finally bought for £575m by Politico and Business Insider owner Axel Springer in March after three years of ownership limbo. The deal completed in June.
Revenue was down 2% to £273.2m in the year to 28 December, with declines in print circulation and advertising blamed. Print still makes up 53% of revenue, or about £144.8m. Print advertising was down 10% to £26.1m.
Telegraph digital subscriptions and advertising revenue up in 2025
The Telegraph said it had 947,000 digital subscribers at the end of 2025 across all its products, including the Puzzles app and Chelsea Magazine Company, up 12% from 842,000 a year earlier. Total subscriptions were on 1,166,000, up 7%.
Both digital subscriptions and advertising revenue increased by 8%, putting them on revenue of £87.4m and £21.5m respectively, according to Telegraph Media Group Holdings Ltd accounts published on Companies House.
But revenue to Telegraph Travel and its other lifestyle journalism declined by 20% as those areas were hit hard by traffic falls due to Google’s AI Overviews, the newspaper said.
The Telegraph revealed total costs of lawyers, accountants, bankers and various consultants relating to the sale over the course of three years topped £40m.
This, and an impairment of £4.2m on the value of Chelsea Magazine Company, took the business into the red.
The Telegraph paid £13m for Chelsea Magazine Company in March 2023. It made up £9.3m of total group revenue last year.
Axel Springer loan to Telegraph came ‘when cash appeared to be tight’
The newspaper reported that Axel Springer stepped in at some point in early 2026 with a £7m loan “when cash appeared to be tight and normal corporate financing avenues were closed off by the ownership uncertainty”. The loan is repayable in December “under normal commercial terms”, according to the company accounts.
A £50m corporate debt with Lloyds (unlinked to the Barclay family debt that led to The Telegraph being seized and then sold) “could not be renewed when it matured last year and had to be paid off”.
Some £35m of cash generated in 2025 made up those repayments and the business tipped into a negative cash flow.
The Telegraph said: “The new accounts show The Telegraph began 2026 with £20m cash in the bank and £15m of its Lloyds loan still due for repayment.
“With the Axel Springer takeover agreed but not yet completed, the £7m loan appeared to avoid a cash crunch when the outstanding sum was due in May.”
Axel Springer previously tried to buy The Telegraph last time it was up for sale in 2004 but was beaten by the Barclay family, whose debts led to the sales process that began in 2023.
Redbird IMI acquired The Telegraph in 2023 as it agreed to pay off £1.2bn in debts for the Barclays. Axel Springer had been cited as an interested party in that original bidding process.
A new UK law banning foreign states from owning more than 15% of UK newspapers meant the sale to Redbird IMI, which had been majority funded by the UAE, was left in limbo.
Last year US-based private investment firm Redbird said it would buy The Telegraph in a new £500m deal with IMI owning no more than the permitted 15%. DMGT was also involved as an investor.
Redbird later pulled out after its bid had still not received Government approval six months later. It had also continued to receive negative publicity in The Telegraph itself, including over potential Chinese links.
Daily Mail owner DMGT then signed an agreement with Redbird IMI in November 2025, planning to pay £400m upfront and a further £100 within two years, but this was held up by public interest and competition investigations requested by the UK Government.
Axel Springer was looking at backing a consortium led by entrepreneur and New York Sun owner Dovid Efune in early 2026 before deciding to swoop in alone with a new negotiation to gazump DMGT. It was not subject to the same competition investigations as it did not have a large UK footprint already.
Some 89% of Telegraph Media Group Holdings revenue in 2025 came from the UK. Axel Springer has spoken about the potential it sees in expanding The Telegraph further into the US market.
The group had more employees in 2025: 1,286 on average each month, of which 861 worked in editorial and production, versus 1,229 and 792 respectively in 2024. There were total redundancy costs of £1.3m in 2025.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
