KEY POINTS:
APN News & Media will pay shareholders an A20c per share dividend as the consortium that failed in its bid for the firm heads back to the drawing board.
Announcing the dividend yesterday, APN said it represented a 30 per cent increase on the A15.4c last year and
brings the full-year payout to A29.7c, unfranked.
The company said the increase was due in part to the delay caused by the consortium offer led by Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media, which owns 38.5 per cent of the company. Other parties in the consortium include US-based private equity firms Carlyle Group and Providence Equity Partners.
The consortium bid launched through a scheme of arrangement was rejected at a meeting of shareholders in Sydney on Friday with 49 per cent of votes opposing the consortium offer of A$6.20 per share. The consortium members have indicated they were looking at other options.
Carlyle Group Australian managing director Simon Moore was quoted by Australian media saying private equity needed to find "a solution that met everyone's constituencies".
INM chief operating officer, Sir Anthony's son Gavin O'Reilly, said on Friday that consortium members wanted to take stock of the votes.
He was looking with interest at moves by the Australian private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners to resurrect its bid for Flight Centre.
Friday's rejection of the takeover means APN remains on the stockmarket and INM retains a 38.5 per cent stake, enough to block any takeover it does not sanction.
The result of Friday's vote was well below the 75 per cent of investors other than INM required for the bid to be successful. APN's second-biggest shareholder, Perpetual Investments, had taken the most high-profile dissent against the offer, which had been backed by the independent committee.
Independent advisers had warned any failure would lead to a drop in the shares. But APN shares that had fallen earlier in the week on expectation the bid would fail increased A7c on Friday and A5c yesterday to close at A$5.92.
Apart from the delay caused by the sale, APN said yesterday the other factor in the increased dividend was that the dividend had not been franked, due to the proportion of profits earned outside Australia.
APN is an Australasian media company with NZ assets including the New Zealand Herald and half of a joint venture owning the Radio Network.