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The former owners of The Daily Telegraph have tabled a proposal to restructure its debt to Britain’s biggest high street lender in a last-ditch attempt to regain control of the right-wing newspaper.

Sky News has learnt that the Barclay family submitted an offer to Lloyds Banking Group on Wednesday that would have entailed the bank writing off a portion of the roughly £1bn it is owed.

Further details of the proposal – which followed one last week and was the latest in a series made by the Barclays in recent months – were unclear, although sources said it had been rejected by Bank of Scotland, the Lloyds subsidiary which is owed the money.

Carlyle, the private equity firm which already holds a portion of debt attached to Barclay-backed companies including the online shopping business Very Group, is understood to be involved in the talks with the family.

The Barclay family is being advised by Houlihan Lokey, the investment bank, on the situation.

A family spokesperson said talks with Lloyds “remain ongoing”.

“We hope to come to an agreement that will satisfy all parties,” they added.

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The prospects of a deal being reached by the two sides appear remote, however, given the protracted nature of the talks and the fact that Lloyds had placed the newspapers’ indirect holding company into receivership earlier this week.

Sky News revealed on Tuesday that Lloyds plans to rapidly launch a sale process for the Telegraph newspapers and Spectator magazine, with a bidding frenzy expected to ensue.

Lloyds executives expect the media assets to command a price tag of about £600m, meaning it would still be owed in the region of £400m by the Barclay family even after the proceeds of the Telegraph sale are used to repay part of the loan.

A group of banks including the Wall Street behemoths Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are vying for the prized mandate to sell the newspapers.

AlixPartners is acting as receiver to B.UK Ltd, a holding company within the Penultimate Investment Holdings Limited (PIHL) Group which indirectly owns the Telegraph Media Group and The Spectator (1828) Limited.

Sky News revealed on Tuesday night that Lloyds is being advised by Lazard on its options for the assets.

The impending sale process would be among the most hotly contested media auctions in Britain for years and is expected to draw interest from billionaires, Tory donors and other media groups.

On Wednesday, Lloyds removed directors appointed by the Barclay family, including Aidan Barclay, the chairman of the newspaper group.

Aidan Barclay is the nephew of Sir Frederick Barclay, the octogenarian who along with late brother Sir David engineered the takeover of the Telegraph in 2004.

Sir Frederick is currently embroiled in a £100m court battle over his divorce settlement.

The Barclays previously owned the Ritz hotel in London, and still own the delivery service Yodel.

Lloyds and Carlyle declined to comment.

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Pizza Hut to shut 68 restaurants in UK after company behind venues falls into administration

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Pizza Hut to shut 68 restaurants in UK after company behind venues falls into administration

Pizza Hut is to close 68 restaurants and 11 delivery sites with the loss of more than 1,200 jobs after the company behind its UK venues fell into administration.

The company has said 1,210 workers are being made redundant as part of the closures.

DC London Pie, the firm running Pizza Hut’s restaurants in the UK, appointed administrators from corporate finance firm FTI on Monday.

It comes less than a year after the business bought the chain’s restaurants from insolvency.

On Monday, American hospitality giant Yum! Brands, which owns the global Pizza Hut business, said it had bought the UK restaurant operation in a pre-pack administration deal – a rescue deal that will save 64 sites and secure the future of 1,276 workers.

A spokesperson for Pizza Hut UK confirmed the Yum! deal and said as a result it was “pleased to secure the continuation of 64 sites to safeguard our guest experience and protect the associated jobs.

“Approximately 2,259 team members will transfer to the new Yum! equity business under UK TUPE legislation, including above-restaurant leaders and support teams.”

Nicolas Burquier, Managing Director of Pizza Hut Europe and Canada, called Monday’s agreement a “targeted acquisition” which, he said, “aims to safeguard our guest experience and protect jobs where possible.

“Our immediate priority is operational continuity at the acquired locations and supporting colleagues through the transition.”

Read more on Sky News:
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The administration came after HMRC filed a winding up petition on Friday against DC London Pie.

DC London Pie was the company formed after Directional Capital, which operated franchises in Sweden and Denmark, snapped up 139 UK restaurants from the previous UK franchisee Heart with Smart Limited in January of this year.

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Bank of England job fears as Andrew Bailey warns of tough choices

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Bank of England job fears as Andrew Bailey warns of tough choices

Staff at the Bank of England are on alert for potential job cuts in Threadneedle Street after the governor, Andrew Bailey, warned of tough decisions about the institution’s future cost base.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Bailey informed Bank of England employees in a memo last week that it was taking a detailed look at costs, although it did not specifically refer to the prospect of redundancies.

One source said the memo had been sent while Mr Bailey was attending the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington.

Its precise wording was unclear on Monday, but one source said it had warned of “tough choices” that would need to be made as the bank accelerated its investment in new technology.

They added that managers had been briefed to expect to have to make savings of between 6% and 8% of their operating budgets.

The Bank of England employed 5,810 people at the end of February, of whom just over 5,000 were full-time, according to its annual report.

Those numbers were marginally higher than in the previous year.

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Read more from Sky News:
Pizza Hut to shut 68 restaurants in UK
B&M shares plunge as accounting blunder dents profits

The central bank’s budget, funded through a levy, is expected to be £596m in the current financial year.

The workforce figures include the Prudential Regulation Authority, Britain’s main banking regulator, which is set to get a new boss next year when Sam Woods steps down after two terms in the role.

A Bank of England spokesperson declined to comment on the contents of Mr Bailey’s memo.

They also declined to provide details of the timing of any previous rounds of redundancies at the bank.

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Business

Pizza Hut to shut 68 restaurants in UK after company behind venues falls into administration

Published

on

By

Pizza Hut to shut 68 restaurants in UK after company behind venues falls into administration

Pizza Hut is to close 68 restaurants and 11 delivery sites with the loss of more than 1,200 jobs after the company behind its UK venues fell into administration.

The company has said 1,210 workers are being made redundant as part of the closures.

DC London Pie, the firm running Pizza Hut’s restaurants in the UK, appointed administrators from corporate finance firm FTI on Monday.

It comes less than a year after the business bought the chain’s restaurants from insolvency.

On Monday, American hospitality giant Yum! Brands, which owns the global Pizza Hut business, said it had bought the UK restaurant operation in a pre-pack administration deal – a rescue deal that will save 64 sites and secure the future of 1,276 workers.

A spokesperson for Pizza Hut UK confirmed the Yum! deal and said as a result it was “pleased to secure the continuation of 64 sites to safeguard our guest experience and protect the associated jobs.

“Approximately 2,259 team members will transfer to the new Yum! equity business under UK TUPE legislation, including above-restaurant leaders and support teams.”

Nicolas Burquier, Managing Director of Pizza Hut Europe and Canada, called Monday’s agreement a “targeted acquisition” which, he said, “aims to safeguard our guest experience and protect jobs where possible.

“Our immediate priority is operational continuity at the acquired locations and supporting colleagues through the transition.”

Read more on Sky News:
Andrew ‘should live in exile’
What’s affected by internet outage
Blind patients regain sight

The administration comes around six weeks after a subsidiary of Yum! filed a winding up petition against DC London Pie.

DC London Pie was the company formed after Directional Capital, which operated franchises in Sweden and Denmark, snapped up 139 UK restaurants from the previous UK franchisee Heart with Smart Limited in January of this year.

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