Business
Daily Mail owner agrees to buy Daily Telegraph for £500m
Getty ImagesThe publisher of the Daily Mail has agreed to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph for £500m.
The Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) said it had entered a period of discussion with RedBird IMI, which is a joint venture between the United Arab Emirates and the US private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners.
RedBird Capital’s own bid for control of the Telegraph collapsed last week.
The deal needs to be signed off by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. A spokesperson said Nandy would “review any new buyer acquiring the Telegraph in line with the public interest and foreign state influence media mergers regimes”.
DMGT and RedBird IMI have said they expect the deal to be finalised “quickly”.
DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere said he had “long admired the Daily Telegraph” and the deal would give “much-needed certainty and confidence” to its employees.
He said: “The Daily Telegraph is Britain’s largest and best quality broadsheet newspaper and I have grown up respecting it. It has a remarkable history and has played a vital role in shaping Britain’s national debate over many decades.”
He added: “Chris Evans is an excellent editor and we intend to give him the resources to invest in the newsroom. Under our ownership, the Daily Telegraph will become a global brand, just as the Daily Mail has.”
The purchase would see the Telegraph become part of DMGT’s portfolio of media organisations, which includes the i Paper, Metro and New Scientist, along with the Daily and Sunday Mail papers.
The group said the Telegraph would remain editorially independent from DMGT’s other titles.
It also said its case for having the deal approved was “compelling” and would comply with UK regulations, as there would be no foreign state investment or capital in the funding structure.
A spokesman for RedBird IMI said: “DMGT and RedBird IMI have worked swiftly to reach the agreement announced today, which will shortly be submitted to the secretary of state.”
RedBird Capital pulled out of a deal to buy the Telegraph last week.
It had a previous attempt to buy the group rebuffed by politicians as it was majority-funded by Abu Dhabi’s IMI group – which is owned in turn by the Abu Dhabi royal family.
A law change meant that foreign sovereign wealth funds could take a maximum stake of 15% in newspapers or periodicals.
Its more recent bid complied with that rule, but it was understood that the government intended to submit the deal to regulatory review.
Sources close to RedBird insisted that they were confident that the bid would have passed a government review process, but cited negative articles toward the bid from the current Telegraph newsroom as a factor in shelving their interest.
RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale had planned to expand the Telegraph’s reach and subscriber base in the US, believing there to be a gap in the market.
Among other investments, RedBird owns the Italian football team AC Milan.
The Telegraph has been in limbo for over two years, when the RedBird IMI consortium paid off the debts of the Telegraph’s previous owners, the Barclay family, hoping to take eventual ownership of the newspapers.
Business
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Business
How long will Jamie Dimon stay as JPMorgan CEO? Bank chief signals ‘few more years’ at the helm – The Times of India
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon signalled he plans to remain in charge of the largest US bank for “a few years,” offering fresh clarity on leadership succession even as the lender projected strong investment banking and trading performance, Reuters reported.Speaking at the bank’s Investor Day in New York, Dimon said he does not intend to step down immediately and may continue with the firm in a different role after eventually relinquishing the chief executive position.“I’m here for a few years as CEO, and maybe a few after that, as executive chairman, pending whatever the board wants to do,” Dimon said.His remarks come amid long-running investor speculation over succession planning at JPMorgan, where Dimon has led the bank for two decades. The lender’s board, he has previously said, remains focused on preparing a deep bench of executives capable of eventually taking over leadership.Under Dimon’s tenure, JPMorgan has risen to become Wall Street’s largest bank by both assets and market value, with a market capitalisation exceeding $800 billion — eclipsing the combined value of rivals Bank of America and Citigroup.Alongside leadership commentary, JPMorgan said it expects investment banking fees and markets revenue to post strong growth in the first quarter, easing concerns that recent equity market turbulence could disrupt dealmaking activity.Investor worries had grown after a sharp sell-off in software and technology stocks — driven by fears of artificial intelligence disruption — raised doubts about mergers and acquisitions and IPO pipelines for high-growth companies.Allaying those concerns, the bank said investment banking fees are expected to rise by a mid-teens percentage, potentially reaching the high teens in the quarter.“We started the year strong. Pipelines were very good, and it was broad based. The one thing I will say in M&A (is that) there are powerful strategic drivers,” Doug Petno, Co-CEO of JPMorgan’s commercial and investment bank, said. “I think a lot of these transactions will survive the volatility and carry on.”Markets revenue is also expected to increase by a mid-teens percentage, supported by elevated trading activity during volatile market conditions, when investors hedge risks and reposition portfolios.The bank kept its forecast for annual adjusted expenses unchanged at $105 billion as it continues investing heavily in technology and artificial intelligence initiatives.JPMorgan expects to spend $19.8 billion on technology in 2026, up 10% from a year earlier.“We continue to invest in AI and we’re seeing tangible benefits in multiple areas. Machine learning and analytical AI have been driving improvements in revenue,” Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said, as quoted Reuters.UBS analyst Erika Najarian said markets increasingly view large money-centre banks as relative beneficiaries of AI disruption, adding investors are keen to understand both productivity gains and revenue opportunities from the technology.Executives said US consumers remain resilient despite elevated interest rates and economic uncertainty, helping sustain spending and credit quality.JPMorgan executive Marianne Lake said the bank had not seen deterioration among lower-income consumers and that “everything is solid” on the consumer front.The lender is targeting a return on tangible common equity of 17%, a key profitability metric measuring how efficiently tangible equity generates profits.In January, JPMorgan reported fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded analysts’ estimates as volatile markets boosted trading income. The bank beat Wall Street profit forecasts in all four quarters last year, according to LSEG-compiled data.JPMorgan shares rose 34.4% in 2025, outperforming both large-cap US banking peers and the broader equity market, while the stock traded marginally higher in post-market activity.
Business
Spirit Airlines plans to slash flights, fleet in bid to emerge from bankruptcy as early as spring
A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 taxis at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving from Boston on September 1, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Kevin Carter | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Spirit Airlines is gearing up to shrink to a tiny version of its former self in an attempt to survive, according to a new plan it unveiled in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Tuesday.
The budget-travel icon said it will get rid of even more of its Airbus fleet as it plans to exit its second bankruptcy in less than a year. It expects to emerge in late spring or early summer, Spirit’s lawyer, Marshall Huebner of Davis Polk, said at a hearing.
The airline has reached an agreement in principle with its creditors for the plan, Huebner said, adding that secured lenders will make “material incremental liquidity available to Spirit via the release of cash collateral.”
In its second bankruptcy, Spirit had held deal talks with Frontier Airlines, and with investment firm Castlelake. Nothing materialized, but Huebner hinted a combination could be back on the table.
“This emergence will allow Spirit to do many things from a position of strength and stability, including to consider potential future industry transactions,” Huebner said.
Spirit’s new fleet would be made up of mostly older Airbus planes, “with the potential rejection of additional high cost NEO aircraft,” Huebner said, referring to the more modern Airbus A320 family of planes, adding that the exact size of Spirit’s fleet will depend on talks with counterparts like aircraft lessors.
He said Spirit’s annualized fleet cost would be cut another $550 million, down 65% from before its bankruptcy filing last year. The debtors have also eyed another $300 million in cost savings from non-fleet cuts, he said.
Spirit has already reduced some of its Airbus fleet and furloughed pilots and flight attendants to cut costs as it reduced its network, though some cabin crew members were called back to work ahead of spring break.
“Because every single day counts, and every single dollar counts, the airline industry is just as competitive today with this deal in hand as it was last Friday, and we must — and will — lock down what we need from other stakeholders and then begin a high speed march to get this storied company out of Chapter 11 at the earliest possible date so that it can write its next chapters from a position of strength,” Huebner said.
Spirit’s new plan will be challenging. It would pit a smaller version of Spirit against ever-larger competitors that dominate the U.S. market. Some U.S. budget carriers have struggled due to a surge in labor and other costs post-Covid, a growing consumer shift in favor of more upscale travel and increased competition from larger airlines that offer stripped down fares.
Spirit was uniquely challenged by a massive engine recall from Pratt & Whitney and a failed plan to get acquired by JetBlue Airways, a deal knocked down by a federal judge in early 2024.
Spirit forecast it would generate a net profit of $252 million last year, according to a court filing in December 2024. But it said in an August report that it lost nearly $257 million in a matter of months stretching from March 13, after it exited its first Chapter 11 bankruptcy, through the end of June. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection again less than a month later.
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