The owner of the New York Sun has emerged as the latest bidder aiming to take control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.
British-born Dovid Efune, who took control of the assets of the former newspaper the New York Sun three years ago, is understood to be in the running to lodge an offer before the deadline set for second-round bidders on 27 September.
Sources have confirmed that Efune is in the running, but to lodge a competitive bid he would probably require the backing of a number of other heavyweight investors.
Efune has secured the backing of institutions including the US investment funds Oaktree and Hudson Bay Capital, the family office of hedge-fund manager and philanthropist Michael Leffell and the investment arm of the Canadian developer Beedie, according to a report.
Efune took control of the assets of the New York Sun in 2021, a broadsheet published in New York from 2002 to 2008, in a deal with its founding editor Seth Lipsky.
Lipsky ran the New York Sun during its print incarnation and continued to publish after its more modest transition to an online platform.
Efune is a former editor of the Jewish publication the Algemeiner Journal, and is prominent on social media with his pro-Israel views.
He served as editor-in-chief and chief executive of the Algemeiner from 2008, when he oversaw the paper’s relaunch as an English-language paper.
Algemeiner was started in 1972 as a Yiddish-language weekly title.
Efune’s potential bid is considered by insiders to require the backing of investors, potentially in conjunction with those already known to be involved in the auction of Telegraph Media Group (TMG).
Sir Paul Marshall, who earlier this week sealed a £100m deal to buy TMG-owned political weekly magazine the Spectator, is leading a bid for the Telegraph titles as part of a consortium backed by Ken Griffin, the US billionaire founder of the Citadel hedge fund. He is one of about four prospective buyers in the running.
Rival bidders so far revealed include the former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi. However, it is unclear if he has achieved formal commitments from the billionaire backers he had held talks with about funding a £600m bid.
National World, the UK-listed media group, is also thought to still be in the frame. CVC, the private equity group behind the Six Nations tournament, is understood to have held talks with other bidders about making a joint offer.
However, it is not clear how serious the talks have been or whether any have progressed formally.