Macquarie Bank Group, a shareholder of Southern Cross Austereo for the past decade has quietly sold their stake in the network.

SCA CEO, Grant Blackley (pictured) saw nothing unusual about the Macquarie’s sale telling staff and stakeholders, “Given the strong half year results that we announced recently they obviously saw this as an opportune time to sell.”

Most of Macquarie’s shares were snapped up by Nine Entertainment who bought a 9.99% stake in SCA fuelling a long-held belief that SCA and Nine were planning a merger of some kind.

Mr Blackley said, “We welcome Nine’s investment in SCA as an indication of confidence in our business.”