Nine says Stuff may not be sold by end of June

Thursday, 2 May 2019

The sale of Stuff by Australian media company Nine may not be done and dusted by the end of June, Nine boss Hugh Marks has told the Australian Financial Review.

Marks said in January that Nine planned to publish an information memorandum for potential buyers of Stuff and hoped to have 'a reasonable take' on what it would do with the business before June 30.

But Marks has now told the AFR that the sale might take longer than that aspirational target, given Stuff was a smaller business, in a smaller market, making it a more difficult proposition, Nine spokeswoman Victoria Buchen confirmed.

* ANALYSIS: Stuff faces possible break-up as NZME readies its wall

* Nine boss Hugh Marks rules nothing out, says Stuff could float**

Nine reached an agreement this week to sell its Australian Community Media business (ACM), which owns 160 Australian regional newspapers including The Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald and Illawarra Mercury, in a deal worth about A$125 million (NZ$132m).

Prior to the sale of ACM to Antony Catalano, the former boss of Nine's property listings business Domain, Marks had said ACM and Stuff could be floated as a single business if they did not sell.

He suggested in January that Stuff might be too small to float on its own, but did not rule out any options including Nine deciding to retain the business – while emphasising he was confident that there would be buyers.

There has been speculation TVNZ could buy parts of Stuff, and an expectation the Government could put more money into public broadcasting in next month's Budget.

TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick said after a select committee meeting in February that it would be 'inappropriate' for him to say if the state-owned broadcaster might be in the market for Stuff, while saying TVNZ needed to improve its local online news offering and was ready take bigger bets.

Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi subsequently said he had met with and reassured private media firms that the Government cared about maintaining plurality in the media market which he described as 'delicate'.