Aussie fund believes it has swing vote to make Steven Joyce NZME’s chairperson

Tuesday, 6 May 2025

Spheria Asset Management says Steven Joyce is the “perfect person to become chair” of NZME, but Labour leader Chris Hipkins says it would call into question the media firm’s editorial stance.

Australian investment fund Spheria Asset Management believes it holds the cards to decide whether former National Party minister Steven Joyce should chair the board of NZ Herald owner NZME.

Spheria director Matt Booker stopped short of confirming it had made a final decision to support Joyce’s candidacy at NZME’s annual meeting next month, but made its intentions clear.

Booker said Spheria was “very favourably disposed towards Joyce”.

“We think he's the perfect person to become the chair.

“He's got a great background. He's very connected. He's very balanced. He's got great business acumen. We think it's a significant positive to have him putting his hand up for the board and for the chairperson’s role.”

Spheria is NZME’s largest shareholder with just over a 19% share in the Auckland-based media firm, which Booker said gave it “a lot of leverage”.

“Clearly we have the swing vote and can drive a positive outcome for all shareholders,” he said.

Spheria is NZME’s largest shareholder with about a 19% share.

NZME said in a statement to the NZX on Tuesday that it had developed an “alternative proposal” to one proposed by wealthy Canadian-born investor Jim Grenon that would originally have cleaned out NZME’s board and made Grenon chairperson.

NZME’s plan would instead see Joyce replace Barbara Chapman as chairperson, with Chapman resigning from the board.

Current NZME directors Carol Campbell and Guy Horrocks and, potentially, Sussan Turner would retain their seats, and would be joined by Bowen Pan, a businessman with experience in e-commerce.

Booker praised Pan’s candidacy.

“We think he will add significant digital experience to the board, which I think is needed in this day and age,” he said. “I think to some extent NZME has fallen behind the market, so we see him as a significant positive as well.”

NZME was not explicit in its statement to the NZX as to whether its board envisaged Grenon or any of his fellow director-nominees would join also the board.

But Booker noted it was “not controlling the outcome”.

NZME’s annual meeting will be held on June 3.

Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins expressed strong concerns about the prospect of Joyce chairing NZME earlier today, confirming he was concerned about a partisan private media emerging in New Zealand.

“At a time when the independence of the media is being severely challenged, I think having a former National Party prime ministerial aspirant chairing the board of NZME will be very, very difficult for that company,” he said.

“It will draw into question their editorial stance, and I think that would be very unfortunate for the very many credible people who work for that organisation,” he told The Post.