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.
