LONDON: British right-wing magazine The Spectator announced Tuesday its sale to a hedge fund manager after the UK government objected to the acquisition of its parent company by a US-UAE joint venture.
The US-Emirati consortium, RedBird IMI, last year struck a £1.2-billion ($1.6-billion) deal to buy Telegraph Media Group, owner of the 196-year-old weekly publication and the Telegraph newspapers.
However, the UK's previous Conservative government ordered the venture to conduct a swift resale of TMG amid the potential impact on freedom of speech given Abu Dhabi's press censorship record.
The Spectator, a right-wing publication once edited by former prime minister Boris Johnson, said that it had been bought by hedge fund manager Paul Marshall for £100 million.
The Telegraph newspapers -- British right-wing broadsheets -- are still looking for a new buyer.
Redbird IMI is majority-owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vice president of the United Arab Emirates and owner of Manchester City Football Club.
The US partner is investment firm RedBird Capital.
"After a year-long auction drama that involved sheikhs and moguls and even ended up changing the law, The Spectator has a new owner," the magazine's editor Fraser Nelson said in a statement.
"Had The Spectator been sold to the Emirati government, as was on the cards, we would have faced obvious questions about our operational and editorial independence."
Founded in 1828, The Spectator is one of the oldest magazines in the world still in print.