Step forward for merger seen in Peters’ support

Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi won’t intervene to encourage or advise the Commerce Commission to look again at the case for allowing NZME and Stuff to merge, his spokesman says.

However, the Government could look at a ‘‘Kiwi Share’’ undertaking floated by NZME that would commit the company to maintain certain mastheads and ‘‘protect journalists’ jobs’’ if a takeover was allowed.

NZ First leader Winston Peters announced yesterday that the party would support a ‘‘Kiwi Share’’ deal at Cabinet, if one was backed by Faafoi.

An agreement between NZME and the Government over how NZME would behave after a takeover could potentially pave the way for the Commerce Commission to reach a different conclusion than in 2017 when it blocked the media merger.

It is understood the Government’s role could be important, as the Commerce Commission is not itself able to enforce ‘‘behavioural undertakings’’ from companies but could potentially take a deal that had been agreed by the Government into account.

However, the commission’s original decision to reject the merger was based more on concerns about merging the Stuff and NZHerald.co.nz websites – rather than concerns it might reduce the number of newspapers that were published or journalism jobs.

NZME and Stuff have always been free to submit a fresh application to the competition watchdog to clear a merger, at any time.

NZME confirmed in a statement to the NZX that it was offering an undertaking which it likened to a ‘‘Kiwi Share’’.

‘‘NZME looks forward to progressing the Kiwi Share proposal with Government and submitting an application for clearance to the Commerce Commission,’’ it said.

Faafoi was still waiting to see the detail of the proposal, his spokesman indicated.

NZME said its discussions with Stuff’s Australian owner Nine remained ‘‘preliminary’’.

NZME shares rose 3.5 per cent after Peters’ statement.