With his agreement to sell his 50% interest in Australia’s largest pay-TV company to News Corp., James Packer is severing his family’s ties to the media sector,
the
Financial Times
reported.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is offering $2 billion for Consolidated Media Holdings, which owns 25% of Australian pay-TV company Foxtel. Packer is the largest shareholder in CMH.
The
FT
article said CMH is the last media asset Packer inherited from his father, Kerry Packer. Other family TV and publishing assets that have been sold include Nine Entertainment. Packer retains a personal 10% holding in broadcaster Ten Network, according to the report. His grandfather Frank Packer founded Australian Consolidated Press in 1936; ACP inaugurated Australia’s first TV broadcasts in 1956.
The
FT
report noted that Packer has reinvested the funds in gaming businesses. He is bidding against Malaysia’s Genting for a deal with rival Australian group Echo Entertainment that would enable him to build a hotel and casino in Sydney. An analyst told the
FT
that Packer is seeking to sell CMH for A$3.50 per share, when previous reports had said he wanted A$4, “suggests he wants cash and he wants cash quickly,” so he can counterbid against Genting. (Source:
Financial Times,
June 21, 2012.)
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