IMI’s unlikely status as a major creditor to a retailer that sells flat screen TVs on hire purchase to low-income households is the result of its unsuccessful attempt to buy the company behind The Telegraph newspaper and Spectator magazines.
Sheikh Mansour last year helped repay an overdue Barclay family debt owed to Lloyds Banking Group. Two new loans, one from Redbird IMI and one directly from IMI, were secured against The Telegraph and Very respectively.
RedBird IMI, which is 75pc funded by the Sheikh and 25pc by the US private equity firm RedBird Capital, was forced to abandon its attempt to convert its loan into ownership of The Telegraph after new laws banning state ownership of UK newspapers were hurriedly introduced last month.
Despite this disappointment, IMI provided the remaining £40m of February’s cash injection at Very.
A sale of Very would leave the Barclays with little of what was once a sprawling business empire. Redbird IMI is seeking buyers for The Telegraph and The Spectator following the Government’s intervention, and the parcels delivery operator Yodel slipped from their grasp via a pre-pack deal earlier this year.
The family has previously tried to sell Very on at least two separate occasions but both times prospective investors failed to meet their price expectations.
Trading at Very is supported by a separate £1.6bn “securitisation facility”, which enables the retailer to sell the vast majority of its goods via consumer credit. More than 90pc of transactions are funded this way.
It sells everything from computer tablets and garden furniture to lego and perfume. The facility is provided by a syndicate of banks, including HSBC and NatWest.
The Barclay family declined to comment.