Bruce Gordon hair’s breadth from NEC takeover trigger
WIN Group’s Bruce Gordon has increased his voting stake in Nine Entertainment Company to sit just under the 20% threshold that would trigger a takeover.
NEC made the disclosure that WIN’s voting power jumped from 14.95% to 19.98% this morning in an ASX announcement. Australian law bans a shareholder from crossing 20% without launching a formal takeover.
The WIN Group now has an aggregate economic interest in NEC of 25.22%, with a proportion of the non-voting stock still parked in equity-swap contracts with Macquarie Bank. The announcement today concerned a change in the proportion of the holding that financial regulator ASIC considers to be controlled by WIN.
The context is that Gordon, through WIN and his investment vehicle Birketu, can now “creep up the register” from his 19.98% in 3% chunks every six months, without tiggering a formal takeover. A takeover would be subject to regulatory scrutiny and put a premium on Gordon’s future share acqusitions.
Gordon is 96, and gained control of WIN in 1979, going on to build it up as a regional television powerhouse.
See Mumbrella’s previous coverage for background on Gordon’s incremental rise as a Nine shareholder.
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