Catalano offers to sell Canberra Times, other papers to Southern Cross
Australian Community Media executive chairman Antony Catalano has proposed selling some of his company’s most storied publications, including The Newcastle Herald, Illawarra Mercury and The Canberra Times, to Southern Cross Media in exchange for a major stake in the ASX-listed group.
On Friday, Southern Cross confirmed reports in The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column that Mr Catalano, who is backed by billionaire businessman Alex Waislitz, had formally approached Southern Cross with a counterproposal to a takeover offer from ARN Media and Anchorage Capital.
Rich listers Alex Waislitz and Antony Catalano have emerged with an offer to grab a stake of Southern Cross Austereo.
“We believe that this proposal would provide immediate benefits to Southern Cross shareholders and is simple to execute, value accretive, is built on both growth opportunity and well as cost synergy, unlikely to require shareholder approval,” Mr Catalano wrote to Southern Cross executives and its bankers. “Please call me to discuss,” he added.
Under his proposal, Southern Cross would own 14 of ACM’s daily newspapers and 52 of his non-daily publications, which were acquired from Nine Entertainment (publishers of this masthead) in 2019. The Land and ACM’s agriculture assets, as well as its real estate play View, were not included.
The new entity would have an extra $200 million in revenue, Mr Catalano wrote, including 130,000 digital news subscriptions. It would emerge with $120 million in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation – up from $77 million in the last financial year.
In return, he wanted a “sub 20 per cent” stake in Southern Cross, sources close to the deal told AFR Weekend on Friday.
Southern Cross
Read more on afr.com
