Barclay brothers avoid bankruptcy after deal with HSBC over £143m debt | Business

The Telegraph’s former owners have avoided bankruptcy after reaching a settlement with HSBC of more than £140 million over overdue debts.

At a high court hearing on Tuesday, Europe’s biggest bank said it was withdrawing its case against Aidan and Howard Barclay, whose family lost control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph in 2023, over a £1.16bn unpaid debt to Lloyds Bank.

HSBC launched legal proceedings against the brothers last year following the collapse of the Logistics Group, which was affiliated with Yodel, the cargo company owned by Barclay.

The business owed the bank £143.5 million and the brothers had provided personal guarantees to secure the loans. HSBC later recovered £1.1 million from the administration process, according to a report in the Telegraph.

The bank withdrew the case after the brothers, aged 70 and 66, agreed to a debt repayment plan, or individual voluntary arrangement (IVA). Details of the agreement were not disclosed. But the court was told the IVA would require the brothers to cover HSBC’s legal costs.

If HSBC had won the bankruptcy judgment, it would have allowed the bank and other creditors to take control of Barclays’ remaining assets and sell them.

The brothers would face a ban on holding company directorships for at least a year or would be legally required to declare their bankruptcy to lenders if they wanted to borrow more than £500 million.

In October, US private equity firm Carlyle Group Took control of Very GroupLittlewoods owner and online shopping site Very is ending two decades of ownership by Barclays. The family also sold the Ritz hotel in London for around £750 million amid a dispute over its assets.

After three years of uncertainty over ownership of the Telegraph, which Barclays bought in 2004, German media group Axel Springer paid £575 million to buy the books and took control this month.

HSBC and the Barclay family declined to comment.