The Daily Mail’s parent company (DMGT), which is attempting to buy The Telegraph newspaper, makes a quarter of its money hosting events in Middle East petrostates.
DMGT has made a £500 million bid to purchase the Telegraph Media Group. A previous offer backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was blocked by the UK government in 2024 over fears of foreign state influence in the British press.
The sale was also opposed by Telegraph staff including former editor Charles Moore, who said it would be “unforgivable” for the paper to be “controlled by a foreign power”, calling the UAE “a country which does not have press freedom”.
However, DMGT also has a significant financial stake in the UAE.
The latest DMGT accounts published on 17 February show the company made £259 million in the year to September 2025 from its events and exhibition business, which has its headquarters in the UAE.
Most of this revenue came from running high-profile energy and construction industry events in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, including several with ties to host governments.
This amounted to 24 percent of DMGT’s total revenue – more than it makes from print and digital advertising (23 percent), or from selling newspapers (22 percent).
Geoff Dickinson, the CEO of DMG Events, is also on the advisory board of the Dubai International Chamber – a trade body representing the Emirate. Dickinson was appointed to the position by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, in 2021.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has referred DMGT’s Telegraph bid to the Competition and Markets Authority, and media regulator Ofcom, which will advise the government on whether the deal should go ahead.
A DMGT spokesperson told The Guardian in December: “DMGT reiterates that the acquisition will be completely free from any prohibited foreign state influence, and that The Telegraph will remain editorially independent, while benefiting from significant investment to accelerate its international growth.”
However, DMGT’s Middle East events business is growing, while its newspaper revenues are in decline. Its latest accounts state that while consumer media revenues fell by two percent in the year to September 2025, its events business “continued to grow, benefitting from increases in exhibitor demand and visitor attendance.”
DMGT’s total events revenue has increased by 59 percent since 2023, and by 160 percent since 2022.
“If DMGT’s takeover bid for the Telegraph goes through, it’ll be like one Death Star swallowing another,” said Mic Wright, author of Breaking: How the Media Works, When it Doesn’t and Why it Matters. “And the fact that oil and gas events are as profitable to DMGT as its entire advertising business suggests to me that it will be rather inclined to go gently on Gulf petrostates in the long term.”
The Telegraph and the Daily Mail consistently publish editorials hostile to climate action and the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Oil and Gas Events
DMGT describes the “core business” of its events arm as the hosting of five large annual exhibitions in the Middle East.
These are the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition (ADIPEC) energy show, reportedly the world’s largest energy exhibition; the EGYPES energy event in Egypt; two ‘Big 5’ construction sector events in Dubai and Riyadh; and the Saudi Food Show.
Several of these events have ties to the host country governments. ADIPEC is hosted by Adnoc, the UAE’s state oil company. EGYPES is “held under the patronage” of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. And the Big 5 events are backed by the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, and the Saudi Ministry for Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing.
The new DMGT accounts note another significant earner, Gastech, an annual energy trade show that focuses on “natural gas, LNG and hydrogen”, held last year in Milan, Italy.
On top of these five big events, DMGT also ran events “on behalf of third parties”, including the official Blue Zone at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in December 2023, and the Green Zone at the COP29 summit in Azerbaijan – also a petrostate – in 2024.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia derive most of their wealth from oil production. Saudi Arabia is the world’s second biggest oil producer after the United States as of 2023. Oil and gas dominate Egypt’s exports and imports.
The UAE doesn’t hold popular elections. There are no political parties, critics of the government are often jailed, women face unequal treatment, and its penal code allows for the arrest of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) campaigners.
Daily Mail owner Jonathan Rothermere accompanied U.S. President Donald Trump on a visit to Doha, Qatar, another Gulf petrostate, in May 2025.
Rothermere’s previous bid for The Telegraph in 2023 reportedly involved backers from Qatar.
As DeSmog has reported, Nigel Farage’s pro-fossil fuel party Reform UK – which is leading polls at 29 percent ahead of May’s elections – is also building ties to the UAE through business deals, funded trips, and meetings with government ministers.
Claudia Rothermere, wife of Jonathan Rothermere, donated £50,000 to Reform UK in September.
DMGT and DCMS were approached for comment.
A version of this article was published by Private Eye.
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