Northern & Shell, Desmond's holding company, has sold 45 titles three years after he first tried to offload the business, which includes magazines such as Asian Babes and Reader's Wives.
The titles have been bought by by Remnant Media, a firm owned by businessmen Simon Robinson and Aroon Maharajh who were behind the Music Unsigned website. In a statement the firm said it was delighted with its purchase.
The move is being seen by industry watchers as an attempt to improve his chances in winning the race for the Telegraph titles, which was blown open at the end of last week following Lord Conrad Black's court case defeat in the US.
The court case ended the Barclay brothers' bid to buy Hollinger Inc and through that gain control of Hollinger International, which owns the Telegraph Group. Hollinger International now plans a straightforward auction.
Desmond, who already owns the Daily and Sunday Express and the Daily Star, has shown himself very determined to win the race for the quality broadsheet title.
Desmond made moves to sell off the adult magazines in early 2001, as part of an effort to head off criticism that he was not a suitable owner of a national newspaper.
However, that attempt to sell came to nothing and Desmond went quiet on the subject, although his continued ownership of such titles has been used against him by his rivals.
Northern & Shell said it planned to sell the titles before it bought Express Newspapers in November 2000.
While the magazines might go, Desmond is not parting company with the adult entertainment world completely. He will retain his adult cable and digital station, the Fantasy Channel.
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