SCA chair slams former shareholder for ‘extreme and violent’ merger comments

Nathan Jolly

October 2, 2025 11:46

SCA chair slams former shareholder for ‘extreme and violent’ merger comments

Heith Mackay-Cruise has hit out against Allan Gray's MD for his comments on the proposed SCA/Seven merger

The chair of Southern Cross Austereo has slammed Allan Gray managing director Simon Mawhinney for his call that the SCA board be “lined up and shot”.

Mawhinney made the comments after Wednesday’s announcement that SCA and Seven West Media intend to merge, and that SCA shareholders would not be given a vote regarding the proposal.

While clearly used in context as a well-trodden metaphor, the comments were derided by SCA as “violent” and “extreme”.

Allan Gray is a former shareholder of SCA, but sold its stake in the company to rival network ARN in 2024 . Mawhinney told the Financial Review’s Sam Buckingham-Jones he believed the board has “failed shareholders” by failing to consult them before acting. Southern Cross Austereo and Seven have structured the deal in such a way that only Seven shareholders have to vote on the merger, which will see SCA retain the ASX listing.

“On this particular transaction, I express no judgment at all. I wholly don’t care,” Mawhinney told the masthead.

“But I think the boards of Australian companies don’t fully appreciate the gravity of the situation here. There is no one in Australia who would accept that. That is exactly what has happened.

“The boards of companies like Southern Cross should be lined up and shot. They have failed shareholders. They have failed in their role stewarding capital with good governance. The sooner we are done with directors who act with disdain towards their shareholder base, those that elected them, the better corporate Australia will be.”

Southern Cross Austereo’s chair Heith Mackay-Cruise issued a statement on Wednesday evening, through communications advisory firm GRACosway, calling the comments “inflammatory” and “inciteful”, saying Mawhinney displayed “extremely poor judgment” in making the comments.

“There is no place in any corporate scenario for the use of extreme and violent metaphors,” Mackay-Cruise said.

According to The Australian, Mawhinney has since reached out to Mackay-Cruise and his board “to issue an unreserved apology.”