Nine Entertainment has set itself an internal deadline of early February to make a decison about whether to sell its radio network or not.
The sale of the radio stations is in play because a public company has to consider sale, merger and acquisition opportunities seriously when they arise. When informal offers were first mooted by Australian Digital Holdings and John Singleton, Nine was obliged to canvas the field, which it has been doing since the second half of last year.
As the dance continues, some of the contenders have fallen away, some have turned out to be just tyre-kickers, while others are still in play.
radioinfo has spoken to some of the interested parties over the past few weeks on condition of anonymity. We did not ask them to reveal elements of the due dilligence documents that were covered by the non disclosure agreement, but we did ask them about the process. The most cited reason for potential bidders cooling off about a purchase was the difficulty of getting clear responses to financial discovery requests made to the investment banking firm Jeffries, assigned to manage the process.
Jefferies was the investment bank that acted as the financial advisor to Nine Entertainment for their 2019 takeover of the remaining stake in John Singleton’s Macquarie Media. At the time, the deal was valued at $113.9 million for the remaining 45.5% stake in Macquarie Media, valuing the total network at about $275 million.
The price now being discussed is between about $25 – $50 million. Nine and Jeffries will undoubtedly be trying to talk the numbers up, while potential bidders will be trying to talk them down.
Of the various contenders, Australian Digital Holdings wrote to Nine before Christmas citing the difficulty in getting the additional information they wanted and indicating that they did not want to progess further. Of course, in sales, a no is not always a definite no, so anything could happen.
John Singleton has told various media outletes that he is also not happy with the process and has threatened to pull out of the race. But he has also left the door open for a hail mary pass, in case Nine is now so committed to a sale that they just want to get the radio network off their books and get some money into the balance sheet some time this financial year.
Of the other interested parties, SEN is always open to exploring a deal, but the stations do not necessarily suit the current expansion plans of the network and could also cause issues with the ACMA in the main metro markets, where it already owns stations. A bid by GTN (Global Traffic Network) could raise eyebrows with investors about related party transactions, considering that Nine Chair Peter Tonagh is also the chairman of GTN. Ben and Nick Fordham have also been touted as possible buyers, but there is no indication that there is likely to be any bid from them. An international media company could buy the stations without any of the potential pitfalls or conflicts that local media owners may have, but none have been revealed so far.
Meanwhile the Nine Radio talk stations and the ACE Radio leased music stations performed well in this week’s ratings results and the 2026 presenters are now all back on air for the new radio year.
The Nine Radio dance continues, for now.
And while discussing radio stations sales, let’s not forget that the newly merged SCA has to offload 17 of its stations to meet ACMA requirements. That will add another dimension to the discussion by putting regional radio station acquisitions in play over the next 6-12 months.
Reporting: Steve Ahern
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