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Quickflix appoints administrators after negotiations with Stan fail to reach agreement

QuickflixQuickflix has appointed Ferrier Hodgson as voluntary administrators after negotiations with rival Stan, which owns a major stake in the business, failed to come to agreement.

As Mumbrella revealed back in 2014, Stan’s acquisition of 83m preference shares in Quickflix gave the Nine/Fairfax owned entity a key blocking stake in its rival.

Management of Quickflix had been seeking to restructure these shares by claiming it was putting off new investors in the company, which has been facing mounting losses and increasingly running low on cash.

Quickflix told the market that Stan had demanded either a $4m payment or $1.25m and the transfer of all of Quickflix’s streaming customers. Quickflix is currently in a trading halt with a market capitalisation of $2.22m and cash on hand of some $659,000. 

In a statement to the ASX this morning the company said: “Neither alternative presents a viable option for Quickflix. In the first instance Quickflix does not have the funds to make payments to Stan, nor does the company believe it can raise funds from investors for that purpose.

“Neither alternative leaves Quickflix in a position to fund its unsecured creditors nor with capital necessary to take the business forward.”

Quickflix goes on to say: “The company has no other realistic alternative but to appoint voluntary administrators.”

The company noted that Ferrier Hodgson would continue to operate the business as usual and noted that its New Zealand business, which is held in a subsidiary, was not in voluntary administration.

Stan bought the redeemable preference shares from HBO in 2014 after the US content company bought them for $10m during a Quickflix cashflow crisis in 2011.

At the time of the 2014 acquisition Stan’s decision was seen as an attempt to block rivals such as Netflix from using Quickflix as a launch pad in this market.

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Nic Christensen 

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