Rupert Murdoch has lined up to bid for The Telegraph in an auction launched on Friday by its temporary owner Lloyds Banking Group.

The nonagenarian media mogul is among a dozen prospective bidders in a sale that is expected to reshape the news industry in the UK and internationally. They have been contacted by the auctioneers, Goldman Sachs, with confirmation of the formal launch of the process.

Mr Murdoch’s British publisher News UK has registered interest in bidding despite the widespread assumption that an attempt to bring The Telegraph under the same control as The Times and The Sun would be blocked by regulators.

However, Westminster sources speculated that the digital revolution in news and its distribution could prompt fresh thinking on how competition and plurality are assessed.

The last time it carried out analysis, in 2019, Ofcom found that The Telegraph and News UK account for 26.5pc of national newspaper consumption online and in print. On that basis a Murdoch takeover of The Telegraph would create a combination slightly larger than DMGT, the publisher of The Daily Mail and Mailonline, on 25.4pc of weekly readership.

The regulatory hurdles likely to be faced by a News UK bid for The Telegraph are expected to prompt concern that it could merely be seeking to gather intelligence on a rival or disrupt the sale. Sources said the bank will assess the credibility of all bidders before granting them access to detailed financial information.

It is understood News UK is managing its interest in the process in-house and has not appointed investment banking advisers. News UK declined to comment on the auction, which comes close to the end of Mr Murdoch’s long career on the front lines of the media industry.

The 92-year-old is scheduled to step down as executive chairman of his companies at the end of the year and hand over to his eldest son Lachlan. This week an activist investor called for the break-up of the empire. Mr Murdoch Sr has plenty of history with The Telegraph, including launching multiple price wars against it.

Lloyds is also selling The Spectator magazine, which Mr Murdoch has also registered interest in acquiring via a separate auction. After a flurry of initial interest it has attracted fewer prospective bidders than The Telegraph.

First round bidding for The Telegraph is scheduled to begin in a fortnight and last four weeks. A second round with a smaller field is expected to open after Christmas, with the auction likely to conclude in early February.

Alongside Mr Murdoch, the auction is expected to pit the hedge fund bosses Sir Paul Marshall and Ken Griffin against a consortium led by the former Telegraph editor Sir William Lewis. DMGT has signed up to bid, as has the German publishing giant Axel Springer.

The Czech gas tycoon and West Ham Utd investor Daniel Kretinsky is expected to participate in the auction, as well as the local newspaper group National World and Belgian publisher Mediahuis. A handful of private equity firms have registered interest and may seek to provide capital to the winning bidder.

Multiple suitors are understood to be focused on The Telegraph’s potential for international growth, particularly in the United States where there is a perceived gap in the news market on the centre-right. The details of such investment plans are likely to play a significant role in how bids are judged, alongside price and regulatory concerns.

Lloyds seized control of The Telegraph in June. The bank sent in receivers from AlixPartners following a dispute with their previous owners, the Barclay family, over debts of more than £1bn secured against them. A new board led by chairman Mike McTighe was appointed at the parent company, Press Acquisitions Limited, and is managing the auction.

The Barclay family have sought to derail the sale in recent days with a £1bn offer to settle the debt, backed by undisclosed Abu Dhabi investors. Lloyds has rejected the approach and made legal moves to distance The Telegraph from its former owners and any further wrangling ahead of the sale.

It is understood that the Barclay family have been told that they may compete in the auction should they wish. However, their other businesses, including the online retailer Very, are also linked to disputed debts to Lloyds.

Valuations for The Telegraph have varied from as low as £300m to as high as £1bn, in part because sales of significant national news organisations are rare and they carry a trophy premium which is difficult to predict. The Telegraph last changed hands in 2004 for £665m.

In a message to staff, Telegraph Media Group chief executive Nick Hugh said: “No doubt there will be a great deal of speculation in the months ahead as prospective bidders come forward, but for us it remains business as usual.”

Lloyds will attempt to recoup as much of the debt as possible while securing new ownership for The Telegraph which is readily acceptable to regulators and the Government. Potential buyers will face scrutiny over the impact a deal would have on competition and the public interest in media plurality and free expression.

It is understood that Lloyds is only likely to consider bids dependent on less than 25pc money from Gulf investors. At that level, sweeping ministerial powers to delay or block a sale under the National Security and Investment Act would be triggered.

Lloyds is seeking a swift and uncomplicated sale. Ownership of an influential news publisher as a general election looms is said to be uncomfortable for Britain’s biggest high street bank.

This week The Telegraph published independently verified subscription figures for the quarter to September. They showed a 5pc increase in digital subscriptions and a total including print of 1,012,631.