Tuesdata: The numbers behind the SCA-SWM merger
Welcome to a Tuesday edition of Unmade on the day that Southern Cross Austereo and Seven West Media announced their plans to merge.
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A merger of two fading broadcasters, or a portfolio of complementary media brands?
So here we go again. Some 16 months after the collapse of ARN Media’s proposal to acquire Southern Cross Austereo, a new deal is on the block - SCA plus Seven West Media.
There are few genuine mergers - there’s almost always a senior party. In 2018, the coming together of Nine and Fairfax Media was presented as a merger but in truth it was a takeover. Nine was the stock that stayed on the ASX, and became the dominant culture.
In this case, SCA will be the survivor on the ASX, acquiring the shares in SWM. SCA shareholders will get 50.1% of the company; SWM shareholders the other 49.9%.
The combined board will initially consist of four SWM directors and three SCA directors. The announcement that Seven proprietor Kerry Stokes will be the first chair looks like a face-saving device. Stokes will retire at the end of February, which would likely only be weeks after the proposed deal completes. SCA’s current chairman Heath Mackay-Cruise will then become chair of the new business.
Under the deal, the Stokes family holding will drop from proprietor level -