Fairfax Media shareholders gather in Sydney tomorrow for the 2016-17 annual meeting that will change the shape of the country’s oldest media company forever.
The meeting will approve the spin off to shareholders of shares in the Domain property listings website that will leave the core newspapers (and 54% of Macquarie Radio and 50% of the Stan streaming business and other assorted assets) with the parent, plus 60% of Domain whose will become the lifeblood for the remaining operations.
Yesterday morning we have found out the identity of some of the share buying we told you about last week with one big buyer coming forward via a substantial shareholding filing.
The notice filed with the ASX revealed that US funds management giant, Fidelity which is based in Boston – was responsible for buying tens of millions of shares from late June through to late last week via offices in Australia, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bermuda.
The notice reveals that FIL Limited bought 45.103 million Fairfax shares from June 26 to October 26. That lifted its stake to 122.06 million shares, or 5.31%.
It means Fidelity already had a stake of around 77 million Fairfax shares when it started buying at the end of June.
Fidelity paid from 95 cents to $1.21 cents a share in its buying spree. Fairfax shares closed at $1.10 yesterday, equal to the highest they have been sine June. The shares rose more than 16% in October.
Fidelity has clearly loaded up on Fairfax shares to grab as many shares as possible in the Domain property website spin off.
Entitlements for the spin off close next week, so there should be more buying.
