The television company fears viewers will hear rumbling both from construction vibration and then from trains. Photo / Dean Purcell
US hedge fund Oaktree Capital, which is in the process of floating Australia's Nine Entertainment, has lifted its stake in local free-to-air broadcaster MediaWorks, whose stable includes TV3 and Four, and radio stations including the Rock, MoreFM and RadioLive.
Los Angeles-based Oaktree, which manages US$79.8 billion of assets worldwide, increased
its ownership of the broadcaster's ultimate holding company, MediaWorks Investments, to 43 per cent on Nov. 8, taking on Rabobank's 14.6 per cent stake, according to filings with the Companies Office. A spokeswoman for Rabo confirmed the bank's exit in MediaWorks, without commenting on details of the transaction.
The date of the transaction was the same day the media group's lenders completed their recapitalisation of MediaWorks, which reduced the company's debt levels to about $100 million from more than $700 million beforehand.
Oaktree emerged as a debt-holder in MediaWorks last year, buying $125 million of the media group's debt at a reported discount of 50 per cent. At the time, then-owner Ironbridge was coming under pressure from rival private equity firm TPG Capital, which had also bought a chunk of MediaWorks' debt.
The June appointment of the receivers was to oversee a restructuring plan where the broadcaster's assets would be placed in a new entity owned by the debt-holders. The transaction put a value of $285 million on MediaWorks, according to the Overseas Investment Office's August approval of the deal.
