Fairfax Media shares plummet to 46c
Shares in Fairfax Media have crashed to another all time low a day after the company announced a $2.7bn loss.
While yesterday’s announcement drove a decline in the share price, this morning’s fall came after it emerged overnight that billionaire Gina Rinehart had attempted to offload some of her 15% shareholding.
At the time of posting, Fairfax shares had just opened at a historic low of 45.5c, having closed at 51c last night. It gives the company a market capitalisation of $1.06bn.
Source: Google Finance
Rinehart’s move appears to have triggered a sell off among other investors who sold down as soon as the market opened.
At their peak, Fairfax Media shares traded for more than $6.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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I can’t believe a copy of SMH cost more than a share in Fairfax.
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Maybe they could do a ‘free share giveaway’ with every sunday paper, as a consumer promotion. If everyones a shareholder they can’t bitch about falling circ.
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Talk about billionaires behaving badly. Gina and Clive Palmer, who’s taunting the Qld Premier with support for the unions after a play date gone wrong, should meet in the naughty corner!
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If Rinehart wanted to sell, she’d have discounted the shares. Clearly she wanted what she got: a stampede of smaller sellers at a discount. On the day of the results.
The question is: who bought? (Notice any interesting people around her recently? Perhaps a little cluster of mates?)
The Fairfax problem is that their board and management have zero cred. They are totally without support in the share market. And they will shortly have a very unhappy AGM (which, by the way, they have decided to bring forward from the usual date just after the Melbourne Cup.)
Rinehart now can do what she likes. She has shown the share market that she will trash the place. So the remaining big shareholders will need to join in some sort of action.
Get ready for a new board and new management.
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“The question is: who bought?”
Probably Lazard. Stand to make a tidy quid if they can strip Fairfax bare.
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It’s hilarious to see how, despite their wealth and power, people like Rinehart are absurdly naive about the social role of media, and the economics behind it. Now Rinehart has almost worthless shares she can’t sell. Her losses are the price of an education.
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Fitzroyalty: you may be somewhat naive. Rinehart might not be subtle. Nor especially insightful. But she does have fxok off money. And she is playing in a game where she can terrorise the object. I reckon she will get what she wants on the cheap. Question is whether that will be anything more than a picking of gold teeth from the war dead.
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