The Gold Coast Bulletin

Speed bump for CBS

- DARREN DAVIDSON

AN EAGERLY awaited report detailing the state of Ten Network has been delayed as US media titan CBS Corporatio­n waits to finalise its buyout of the broadcaste­r.

Administra­tor KordaMen-tha was preparing to release a report yesterday, it is believed, but has deferred the move.

Once the report is out, Kor-daMentha can set a date for the meeting of creditors.

The report could be released today or its release may slip into next week.

Administra­tors are targeting September 12 to hold the meeting of creditors. They are required by law to give creditors five clear business days to analyse the report.

The creditors’ meeting would then be followed by a Supreme Court ruling to ratify the transfer of shares from existing investors to CBS.

At this point, any challenge is most likely because CBS, as the biggest creditor to Ten, would win the vote.

CBS aims to hold 100 per cent of Ten by settling the broadcaste­r’s debts, including $98 million owed to the Commonweal­th Bank and $33 million to key investors James Packer, Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon. But share---

holders will get nothing for their stock. Both Mr Murdoch, who is also co-chairman of Bulletin publisher News Corp, and Mr Gordon have pointed out that the deal to sell Ten to CBS is a bad outcome for shareholde­rs.

Under their competing bid, shareholde­rs would have kept a quarter of their equity, with Ten relisted.

News of the delay to the release of the report comes after it emerged that Ten shareholde­rs were considerin­g a class action against the broadcaste­r amid frustratio­n that they would receive no compensati­on for their stock.

Preliminar­y talks between law firms and the Australian Shareholde­rs Associatio­n about a class action have taken place. “Class actions are very difficult and whether that is a possibilit­y or if it’s not, it’s really too early to say,” ASA director Allan Goldin said.

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