Kerry Stokes buys TEN shares
Kerry Stokes' Seven Group has acquired a stake worth about $40 million in Network TEN.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group has acquired a stake worth about $40 million in Network TEN.
Stokes is believed to have purchased shares in TEN in December, before participating in TEN’s $230 million capital raising and now holds just under 5 per cent of the network, the threshold at which he is required to declare his interest to the Australian Securities Exchange.
It’s not the first time Stokes has owned shares in TEN, having previously acquired a small stake in late 2011 which was later sold.
The Australian Financial Review theorises about why Stokes might want to acquire TEN shares: one to unnerve Lachlan Murdoch, with whom he has had a bitter rivalry at times, and the other to position Seven ahead of a potential shake-up of the TV industry in the event the government scraps the so-called ‘reach rule’ which prevents the metropolitan networks from merging with their regional TV affiliates.
There  has also been speculation about Seven acquiring its regional affiliate, Prime Media.
Seven Group, which owns a 33 per cent stake in media company Seven West Media, is sitting on a $432 million cash pile after paying down its debt partly from last year’s sale of its stake in pay TV vehicle Consolidated Media Holdings to News Corporation.
Both Seven and TEN declined to comment.
Additional source:Â Â The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald
14 Responses
@bettestreep2008: It was WA that nominated Kerry Stokes for Australian of the Year… on the basis of his contribution to the preservation of Australian military heritage, not his media interests.
Brave man but I would say that would be just a drop in the ocean for him
Oh come on.
How much more ‘conflicts of interest’ can go on in the television industry?
And NSW thought Kerry Stokes was a worthy nominee for Australian of the year???
Something has rattled Stokes and he wants in. Rumors about News and TEN are getting louder, with a possible change of Government in Sept, he might want some leverage.
$40m is a small bet for Stokes. It is too small to have much strategic significance. If Ten survives he will make a profit.
Wonder if Kerry and Gina’s combined voting privileges would be enough to overthrow Murdoch?
… Because it’s going cheap in The Great TEN Fire Sale. But it doesn’t mean TEN won’t have good potential in the future. Stokes must see that.
Interesting two AFR theories about why Kerry Stokes has done this. Could there be a third reason? Anything to do with political influence? Never.
Maybe he has faith in Adam Boland’s talents…
Only ten shares? That’s not many 🙂
He should save his money and concentrate on the weaknesses in Seven.
Intersting.
This is remarkable what is going on. Ten is looking more and more like a vehicle for anything but quality programming. Although i dont exactly know why Kerry Stokes would want to acquire shares in Ten considering the network is floundering and he already owns Seven in terms of gaining political influence. Maybe he just want to oversee Ten’s slide down the ladder and simply has cash luying around to spend it. If i was him i would be more worried about the ad revenue slips for his network.
The quote “I’m going to kill your network” springs to mind.