Bermuda based Bruce Gordon has surprised analysts by selling down his stake in the Seven Network’s regional affiliate, Prime Media Group, cutting it from nearly 15% to around 3.25%.
Gordon sold his shares for 23 cents in a derivatives deal with the funder of his position Deutsche Bank.
Prime shares were steady yesterday, closing at 24 cents.
A notice lodged with the ASX on Wednesday reported that Gordon’s main private company, Birketu Pty Ltd, was no longer Prime Media’s largest shareholder after it entered into a cash-settled share swap transactions which cut his interest in 43 million shares in April and May.
Mr. Gordon, and his regional media group WIN, still owns 11.9 million shares directly held by Birketu. He increased his stake in Prime Media in 2018 ahead of expected media mergers.
Gordon is the largest shareholder in the merged Nine/Fairfax Media group through his holding in Nine shares.
He has used cash-settled equity swaps, usually arranged by Deutsche Bank, to help bypass media ownership restrictions.
But as successful as he has been Mr. Gordon did his shirt in the Ten Network where he had been a big shareholder for more than a decade.
He eventually lost several hundred millions of dollars in his investment when Ten collapsed in 2017 and was bought by CBS as Gordon and Lachlan Murdoch tried to finesse their way to control, but failed.
There has been deal speculation around Prime and ACM, the former Nine/Fairfax regional and local newspaper group just bought by Anthony Catalano and Thorney Investments of Melbourne.
Could Gordon’s sell-down clear the way for such a deal?
Gordon’s WIN is the regional affiliate of the Ten Network which is a weak and distant third in the commercial ratings at the moment behind Nine-Southern Cross) and Seven (Prime)
