Kerry Stokes no longer ARN Media’s top shareholder
ARN Media has a new top shareholder, after a Friday afternoon sell-off saw an investor blast by major shareholders – Seven West chairman Kerry Stokes and News Corp – to take the largest slice of the media company.
Samuel Terry Asset Management now controls 16% of ARN Media, after buying up the majority of Allan Gray’s 10% investment, which it sold off in a series of transactions on Friday afternoon. Samuel Terry previously held a 7.4% stake.
With 16% of the media company, Samuel Terry has moved past both Seven West chairman Kerry Stokes, who holds 14.5% of the company and was the biggest single holder, and News Corp’s 13% stake.
Allan Gray’s CEO Simon Mawhinney was blunt about the Friday sell-offs, telling the The Australian on Sunday that “things haven’t transpired the way we had hoped for” in regards to the media company, which owns the KIIS and Pure Gold radio networks.
“We had been on the record for a long time saying we wanted to exit ARN,” he said.
“We’ve been a shareholder in ARN Media for some time and things haven’t transpired the way we had hoped for, it hasn’t been a particularly good investment for us.
ARN’s share price
“While we see the value in the company we think the path to crystallising that value is unclear from the perspective and shareholders and we felt this was a good time to pass the baton on to other shareholders.”
In 2022, ARN Media acquired regional radio network Grant Broadcasters, a series of 46 stations, for $307.5 million.
ARN has decreased in value by 27% in the last 12 months, to a market capitalisation of $172.2 million.
Last October, it entered into a lengthy attempt to acquire Southern Cross Media, teaming with Anchorage Capital Partners to facilitate the sale.
The bid proposed splitting ARN and Southern Cross’s assets into two new audio companies, and failed in May this year, after Anchorage pulled out, saying SCA’s regional TV assets made the deal unviable.
“In light of a continued decline in the trading performance of Regional TV since the Consortium Proposal was made in October 2023, the further deteriorating outlook for Regional TV, and the existing long-term contractual obligation of SCA for outsourced TV broadcast transmission,” Anchorage said.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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Samuel Thomas will have ARN management in fear. They don’t buy companies to run it like they are being runned
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