Barclay family scrambles to find buyer for parcel delivery group Yodel

The owners of The Daily Telegraph are scrambling to find a buyer for Yodel, the parcel delivery group they own, as part of efforts to untangle their web of corporate and financial interests.

Sky News has learnt that advisers to the Barclay family have accelerated efforts in recent days to secure new owners for Yodel, and are in talks with a number of trade bidders and potential financial buyers about a deal.

Among the parties which has expressed an interest in buying Yodel, according to industry sources, is The Delivery Group, a privately held company based in Cheshire.

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An executive at one rival operator said the Barclays had been exploring whether to inject more than £25m into Yodel in recent weeks to shore up its finances as it continues to seek a buyer.

A spokesman for the Barclay family declined to comment on the process, which is being run by bankers at Clearwater.

Yodel, which is part of a Barclay-owned entity called Logistics Group Holdings (LGH), delivered nearly 200m parcels last year but has struggled to achieve sustainable profitability amid intense competition.

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Accounts for LGH are more than a month overdue, according to Companies House records.

It is unclear how closely tied Yodel’s funding needs and cash runway are tied to the deal that the Barclay family has struck with RedBird IMI to take control of the Telegraph newspapers and Spectator magazine.

That transaction, which was triggered by RedBird IMI repaying a £1.16bn loan that the Barclays owed to Lloyds Banking Group in December, is now the subject of a government probe and fervent political and journalistic opposition to its completion.

Half of the loan repayment was tied to the media assets, with the other half – funded solely by Abu Dhabi-based IMI – secured against other Barclay family interests.

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The family also owns Very Group, the online retailer.

Yodel is among the biggest parcel couriers in the UK, competing with Royal Mail, Evri and Amazon Logistics.

Evri, which is owned by the private equity group, is also beginning the process of exploring a sale, according to a report on Reuters last week.

Last year, Mike Hancox, Yodel’s chief executive, told The Guardian that the seizure of the Telegraph titles had prompted him to ask Yodel’s owners about its future.

“I did ask the question: ‘Is there an impact on Yodel?’ I was told very clearly: ‘No – we don’t bank with Lloyds Banking Group and we don’t trade with the Telegraph so there is no link,'” Mr Hancox told the newspaper.

He also said the company had been the subject of enquiries from potential buyers during his tenure.

“If anybody was serious, we would entertain them … The right offer has not yet come along, but it might do,” he said.

The tussle over the future of the Telegraph has nominally left the Barclays back in the status of owners once more, but without the ability to exercise any meaningful influence over the titles.

In recent weeks, the newspaper group’s chief executive, Nick Hugh, and finance chief Cormac O’Shea have left.

The Delivery Group did not respond to a request for comment.

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