A number of trade sources, who weren’t authorised to talk publicly, mentioned Stokes had eyed off radio property for a while and was in conversations with each corporations earlier than changing into ARN’s largest shareholder, by way of an on-market purchase of 14.9 per cent and an additional 5 per cent by way of a cash-settled fairness swap with banking firm Barrenjoey.
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“Our funding in [ARN] aligns with our strategic pillar of partnering for development, and we look ahead to continued collaboration throughout our two corporations,” Seven West Media boss James Warburton mentioned in an ASX replace on Monday morning.
Shut watchers of Stokes have seen related strikes out of his playbook earlier than. He not too long ago took a stake earlier than jostling for better affect in building supplies firm Boral. However media rules received’t permit his typical “creep” techniques (shopping for up 3 per cent each six months) to work with ARN.
In the meantime, Information Corp, which additionally owns 13 per cent of ARN, is locked out of any additional motion on ARN attributable to its incoming chairman Lachlan Murdoch’s personal personal possession of radio community Nova Leisure.
E&P Capital analyst Entcho Raykovski didn’t count on Seven to try to purchase the rest of ARN within the close to future, however mentioned it gave Seven a possibility to have a say in any media consolidation that ensued.
ARN Media chief government Ciaran Davis is able to do no matter it takes to get one of the bold media offers in current reminiscence throughout the road.Credit score: James Brickwood.
ARN chief government Ciaran Davis mentioned on Monday the funding is “completely a optimistic”, however he remained coy on additional consolidation down the road, his focus staying by itself takeover proposal.
“We all know we’re undervalued from a market perspective, and what we’re doing is about driving shareholder worth for our present shareholders, and if that down the highway entails some type of additional consolidation, we’ll overview that on the proper time.”
Whereas Southern Cross administrators have remained tight-lipped on intentions, when contacted new boss John Kelly mentioned the corporate would have extra to say later this week.