Nine boss rules nothing out, says Stuff could float
Stuff Ltd could be sold via a sharemarket listing bundled up with Nine Entertainment’s Australian community newspaper business (ACM), if owner Nine does not get a satisfactory offer for both businesses, Nine chief executive Hugh Marks says.
Marks expected Nine would start to engage with interested buyers of Stuff within about a month to six weeks, and forecast interest from a ‘‘wide range’’ of parties.
Australia’s Nine acquired New Zealand’s Stuff, which publishes the
website and newspapers including the Sunday Star-Times ,as a result of its acquisition of Fairfax Media in December.
Nine would publish an information memorandum for potential buyers, which would be followed by time for due diligence and indicative offers.
‘‘Some time prior to June 30, I would hope that we would have a reasonable take on what it is we are going to do and how,’’ he said.
Marks would not say how much he expected Stuff would fetch, but said floating the combined businesses was an option if the price buyers offered wasn’t right.
‘‘On their own they are reasonably small, and listing would be a complication,’’ he said, so individual stock exchange listings would not be Nine’s preferred option.
Nothing was off the table – including Nine retaining ownership of Stuff and ACM, he said. ‘‘But I feel confident there will be buyers for these businesses based on what I understand about them now.’’
Stuff and ACM’s Australian regional publications, which include The Canberra Times, could be sold as a single package to one buyer, or separately, he said.
‘‘It will come down to the person who is prepared to pay the best.’’
Stuff had a done a better job than most media firms around the world managing that transition from print to digital, he said.
‘‘The sorts of people that will be interested in the business will be people that want to have that sort of reach and connection with communities.’’
Splitting up Stuff and selling parts of the business to different buyers would be ‘‘messy’’, but Marks also did not rule that out.
‘‘I think the media business – which is the combination of the print and digital and the digital local investments they have made – those things do really sit together.’’ Selling off individual titles would be ‘‘incredibly difficult’’, he said. ‘‘But again if someone is prepared to pay a premium price for a particular asset, it is something the business would look at.’’
Asked whether Nine had a duty of care over who it sold Stuff to, given media’s role in democracy, Marks said it would respond to that at the time if it became an issue.
‘‘I would imagine that most of the [potential] buyers will be people who would be consistent with owners like ourselves or Fairfax – more ‘trade’ people, potentially private equity.’’
Marks said Nine was not looking to step in with any radical changes in advance of a sale.
Policies being considered in Australia to improve the financial viability of journalism – such as making digital subscriptions taxdeductible – were worthy of consideration in New Zealand, he said.
‘‘Historically, governments have invested in drama, television production and documentaries. Is journalism another area that is worthy of investment?’’
Tom Pullar-Strecker