You won’t BELIEVE the shocking debt scandal that turned the Barclay family into a media circus!

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In today’s newsletter:

• The Telegraph Media Group goes into receivership

• How Wall Street brokered a golf truce

• Asset managers target Nvidia

For those who pay debts

It’s a time-worn cliché for financial journalists to quote Ernest HemingwayIt’s that failure occurs “gradually, then suddenly”.

However, DD could think of few better ways to describe the shock that crashed into receivership of the Barclay owning family holding company The newspaper AND Sunday Telegraph newspapers.

There have been growing indications that the British billionaire family’s finances have become increasingly strained. It’s still Lloyds Banking Group‘S move put a Bermuda-based holding company that ultimately controls the Telegraph Media Group in receivership stunned the British media industry.

The newspaper and the Viewer magazine will now be put on the block, ending the nearly two decades of Barclay ownership that began when Sir Frederick Barclay and his late brother David acquired the Telegraph newspapers in 2004.

How did it come to this?

A bitter family feud became public in 2020 when Sir Frederick and his daughter Amanda sued a group of direct relatives of Sir David for presumably accomplice intercepting 1,000 of his private conversations in the ritz Hotels.

Then, last year, Sir Frederick was faced with the possibility of a short prison sentence after a judge found him in contempt of court for failing to pay his ex-wife maintenance and legal costs totaling £245,000.

Once one of Britain’s richest men, he told the court he couldn’t afford to pay his ex-wife because she had relinquished control of the business empire he helped build with his late twin brother David to his three nephews.

An obscure grove of offshore holding companies and family trusts has long obscured the true nature of Barclay’s finances.

To get an idea of ​​the intricate ownership structures, one need only look at the curiously warned statement in TMG’s accounts that its “directors consider [its parent company] as ultimately controlled by the settlements of the Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay family”.

Lloyds have now placed one of the offshore holding companies that own The Telegraph into administration. Our colleagues at FT have reported that the debt of this holding company, which Lloyds has taken on with the takeover of the troubled lender HBO extension in 2008 – it rose to almost £1 billion.

(While there is little public information on the extent of Bermuda B.UK Limitedinterested DD readers can learn a few more details from the Paradise Cards LOSE.)

Who will be interested in buying the Telegraph now that it’s on sale?

Potential runners and runners include the likes of rival media groups such as DMG extension and even the Czech energy tycoon Daniel Kretinskywho owns a slice of France le Monde newspaper and previously had a look at the Telegraph in 2020. Rupert Murdochmeanwhile, it could take a turn to the Viewer.

The London refurbishment consultants will also be looking closely at the rest of the Barclay empire, which includes the online retailer Very Group and delivery service companies Yodel.

Wall Street negotiates a world peace treaty on golf

The abyss in men’s professional golf was perhaps most evident not in a feverish televised contest with a big prize on offer, but in a friendly match in South Florida.

Last February, the ultra-exclusive “members-guests” gathering Seminole Golf Club at Juno Beach it has attracted most of the game’s biggest stars along with titans of industry and finance.

The president of Seminole Jimmy Dunna major Wall Street moneymaker, however, hadn’t invited those previous supporters of the event who had dropped out of the PGA Tour For LIV GolfSaudi Arabian-funded rebel league launched in 2022.

“We’re doing what we’ve always done,” Dunne told Golfweek magazine ahead of the event. “PGA Tour players have top priority. This event has always been supported by the PGA Tour.”

Dunne has softened his tone on the Saudi foray into golf. Rival leagues on Tuesday revealed a fusion that stunned the golf world.

Dunne and Wachtell Lipton‘S Ed Herlihy they acted as architects on behalf of the PGA behind the scenes, both great successes in the world of golf and mergers and acquisitions.

Dunne is close to several professionals including Critical Lv Rory McIlroy and boasts enrollments in the most exclusive courses across America.

Dunne is also known as a former executive of the investment banking firm Sandler O’Neill + associateswhich lost dozens of employees in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Dunne was playing golf that morning. In the years since, he has been widely credited with both resurrecting Sandler and honoring his deceased colleagues. His new partnership with Saudi Arabia has drawn much criticism from Wall Street viewers.

DD and our colleagues broke the monumental agreement in detail here.

Money managers pile into Nvidia

Barter Nvidiachipmaker now worth nearly $1 trillion as it becomes the go-to bet for AI, confused DD earlier this year.

The stock had more than doubled before earnings, and a number of large leading brokers had suddenly leapt to the top of the share register — a telltale sign that hedge funds were piling up.

After the epic 2021 crash of Archegosthe family office that had used stock swaps with a smattering of Wall Street’s biggest banks to boost its bets before it imploded only made sense to kick the tires.

What DD heard over and over: It wasn’t just a bottom dipping, but a bunch of them. Data from Goldman Sachs shows that the company has quickly become one of hedge funds’ most popular bets. A total of 113 hedge funds owned shares at the end of the first quarter, with dozens opening positions or increasing their shares.

Add in the swaps not reported in individual funds’ 13-F filings with the SEC, and it’s clear why Nvidia is now on Goldman’s so-called hedge fund VIP list.

“I’ve never seen a shift like that, frankly,” a tech trader at a Wall Street bank he told DDadding that after the company released its latest figures, “people do the math and it becomes something [they] having to possess. . . the pursuit [was] ON”.

It’s a big win for the hedge fund community, as their counterparts in the long-only mutual fund world were vastly underweight in the stock. That choice, and the fact that this year S&P 500 gains were driven predominantly by a handful of growth stocks, contributed to the underperformance of mutual funds.

The trade could still crumble, particularly if the company’s anticipated revenue surge proves unsustainable. But in recent days, mutual funds have joined the hedge fund community: buying up the stock.

The work moves

• Cnn boss Chris Light is set to leave the network after a series of controversies. of CNN Amy Entelis, Virginia Moseley, Eric Sherling he will help run things until a replacement is found.

• One of Canada’s largest asset managers, The Alberta Investment Management Firm, expects to more than double its staff in London.

• Jefferies has hired elderly Bank of America software investment banker Ron Eliasekaccording to Reuters.

• Shearman & Sterling company James Duncan left the US law firm prior to its merger with Allen & Overy stick Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London.

Smart readings

Telenovela on air The departure of CNN chief Chris Licht is the culmination of a failed attempt from the network to shift from anti-Trump rhetoric to a centrist narrative, writes Ben Smith of Semafor.

End of an era Sequoia’s venture capital empire was bridging the hemispheres. Up to geopolitical tensions become hard to ignorereports the FT.

SVB & McKinsey Three years before its implosion, Silicon Valley Bank turned to consultants from McKinsey & Co to help it grow. The consulting firm is over playing a role in its demisereports the Washington Post.

News review

Qataris make final bid in battle for Manchester United (FT)

Porsche SE board member accused of money laundering (FT)

Markus Braun told Wirecard’s lead attorney that compliance was “crap,” the court heard (FT)

Ivan Menezes, businessman, 1959-2023 (FT)

Vodafone and Hutchison announce their UK merger as soon as Friday (Reuters)