Private equity funds size up regional titles

February 4, 2019roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Lilly Vitorovich
The Australian – Page: 24 : 4-Feb-19

Allegro Funds, Anchorage Capital and Platinum Equity are said to be the leading contenders to acquire Nine Entertainment Company’s portfolio of regional newspapers, which it inherited via the merger with Fairfax Media. Independent expert Grant Samuel had valued Fairfax’s Australian Community Media division at $100m to $120m in 2018, and the business generates EBITDA of around $52m a year. Nine is also believed to be looking to sell Fairfax’s New Zealand business, Stuff.

CORPORATES
NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY MEDIA, ALLEGRO FUNDS PTY LTD, ANCHORAGE CAPITAL PARTNERS PTY LTD, PLATINUM EQUITY HOLDINGS, STUFF LIMITED, RURAL PRESS LIMITED, APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT LLC, MACQUARIE CAPITAL PTY LTD, TPG CAPITAL LP, GRANT SAMUEL AND ASSOCIATES PTY LTD, JEFFERIES AND COMPANY, HT&E LIMITED – ASX HT1, NZME LIMITED – ASX NZM, MACQUARIE MEDIA LIMITED – ASX MRN

Labor flags modern rules for the media

February 4, 2019roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by John Kehoe, Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 30 : 4-Feb-19

Shadow communications minister Michelle Rowland says public interest journalism will be a priority for Labor if it wins the 2019 federal election. She adds that Labor will also pursue changes to the media industry’s regulatory framework, arguing that it was designed for the analogue era and is outdated. Rowland adds that Labor would not seek to reverse the federal government’s cross-media ownership reforms, despite having opposed the abolition of the ‘two-out-of-three rule’.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, GILBERT AND TOBIN LAWYERS, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED

Battle of the books: MUP loses its spine

January 31, 2019roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Chip Le Grand, Rachel Baxendale
The Australian – Page: 1 & 7 : 31-Jan-19

A change in Melbourne University Publishing’s editorial policy has prompted the resignation of long-serving CEO Louise Adler and five independent directors of the venerable publishing house. The University of Melbourne’s vice-chancellor Duncan Maskell has ordered MUP to exit trade publishing and focus exclusively on academic publishing. Several of the directors who resigned have questioned whether MUP will be viable under its new business model, noting the limited market in Australia for academic works.

CORPORATES
MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING LIMITED, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND PRESS, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS AUSTRALIA (INTERNATIONAL) PTY LTD, QUEENSLAND. CRIME AND CORRUPTION COMMISSION, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA

Ratings pain as tennis fails to shine for Nine

January 29, 2019roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Andrew White
The Australian – Page: 3 : 29-Jan-19

The Nine Network’s coverage of the 2019 Australian Open men’s final attracted an average national audience of 2.085 million. It was the lowest combined audience since 2007, while Seven attracted an audience of 2.37 million for its last men’s final broadcast in 2018. The women’s final attracted a combined average of 1.57 million. Nine spent $55m on its coverage of the 2019 Australian Open, and boasted advertising revenue of $45m. In contrast, Nine had spent $105m a year on broadcasting cricket, with ad revenue of $70m.

CORPORATES
NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS, SEVEN NETWORK LIMITED

Tennis young guns draw in TV audiences

January 24, 2019roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Patrick Durkin, Alex Gluyas
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 24-Jan-19

The 2019 Australian Open has been a rating success for the Nine Network. Local hopeful Ash Barty attracted an average national audience of 1.59 million in a losing match on 23 January, outrating the Big Bash League. Likewise, an average of 1.4 million viewers nationwide watched Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas defeat Roger Federer in a major upset. Chinese and Japanese tennis players have also attracted huge audiences in their home countries, while Tennis Australia has secured sponsorship deals with a number of Chinese brands.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN OPEN TENNIS, NINE NETWORK AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NINE ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX NEC, BIG BASH LEAGUE, TENNIS AUSTRALIA

Sky News ramps up coverage

January 21, 2019roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Lilly Vitorovich
The Australian – Page: Online : 21-Jan-19

The Sky News program ‘Paul Murray LIVE’ is to be broadcast from 10 regional locations in the leadup to the federal election, with the first program in the ‘Our Town, Our Show’ tour coming from Toowoomba on 20 February. Paul Whittaker, the CEO of Sky New’s parent company Australian News Channel, says the broadcasts will be an opportunity to hear the issues of importance to people living outside the big cities. As well as the Paul Murray tour, Sky News is to air new shows hosted by Chris Kenny and Peter Gleeson.

CORPORATES
SKY NEWS, AUSTRALIAN NEWS CHANNEL PTY LTD

Kogan blames Apple for dive in global sales

January 18, 2019roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 15 & 18 : 18-Jan-19

Kogan.com has reported revenue growth of 9.7 per cent for the first half of 2018-19. The listed e-commerce group’s private label and partner brand sales rose by 23.6 per cent and 92.8 per cent respectively, but sales of global brands fell by 47 per cent. Founder Ruslan Kogan notes that sales of Apple products fell sharply during the period, although sales of other global brand rose by 8.5 per cent. Kogan.com has also been affected by the federal government’s move to impose GST on goods purchased overseas that cost less than $1,000.

CORPORATES
KOGAN.COM LIMITED – ASX KGN, APPLE INCORPORATED, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS COMPANY LIMITED, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, GARMIN LIMITED, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, BLOOMBERG LP, JB HI-FI LIMITED – ASX JBH, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF JOBS AND SMALL BUSINESS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS

Pollak sceptical about Disney’s deal with Fox

January 18, 2019roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Natasha Gillezeau
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 18 : 18-Jan-19

Loftus Peak’s chief investment officer Alex Pollak has queried Disney’s decision to pay $US71.3bn ($97bn) for 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets in 2018. He notes that both Disney and Fox largely generate their revenue streams from the sale of content to cable and pay-TV companies, but these sources of revenue are under increasing threat from video-on-demand services like Netflix. Pollak says Rupert Murdoch sold 21st Century Fox because he decided that it could not compete with companies like Netflix and Amazon.

CORPORATES
WALT DISNEY COMPANY, 21ST CENTURY FOX INCORPORATED, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, SEEK LIMITED – ASX SEK, CARSALES.COM LIMITED – ASX CAR, FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, COMCAST CORPORATION, LOFTUS PEAK

Hayne gets blame for retail spending squeeze

January 17, 2019roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Sue Mitchell
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 17-Jan-19

Australian retailers had mixed fortunes during the crucial Christmas shopping period, according to analysts. Data from ShopperTrak shows that shopping centres recorded a 12.2 per cent decline in customer traffic in December, including a 23 per cent fall in the week to December 30. Meanwhile, retail adviser James Stewart says factors such as falling house prices and tighter access to credit in the wake of the financial services royal commission are weighing on consumer spending. He adds that more retailers are likely to go into administration in 2019 following the recent collapse of clothing chain Ed Harry.

CORPORATES
SHOPPERTRAK INCORPORATED, ED HARRY MENSWEAR, MORGAN STANLEY AUSTRALIA LIMITED, MICHAEL HILL INTERNATIONAL LIMITED – ASX MHJ, KATHMANDU HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX KMD, THE REJECT SHOP LIMITED – ASX TRS, KMART AUSTRALIA LIMITED, NONI B LIMITED – ASX NBL, THE PAS GROUP LIMITED – ASX PGR, WESFARMERS LIMITED – ASX WES, NOMURA AUSTRALIA LIMITED, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE. INSTITUTE OF APPLIED ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH, AUSTRALIA. ROYAL COMMISSION INTO MISCONDUCT IN THE BANKING, SUPERANNUATION AND FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY

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