KEY POINTS:
NZX said today Fairfax New Zealand Finance Ltd had requested a trading halt in its securities pending an announcement by the company scheduled for 10.30am.
Fairfax New Zealand Finance Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fairfax Corporation Pty Ltd whose ultimate parent company is John Fairfax Holdings
Limited.
John Fairfax is the considered to be a vital piece at the centre of an expected reshuffle of media ownership in Australia following the liberalisation of ownership laws there.
Last year John Fairfax Holdings Limited (Fairfax) issued $200 million of RPS (redeemable preference shares) in Fairfax New Zealand Finance through an offer to New Zealand investors.
Fairfax publishes The Dominion Post, The Press, The Sunday Star-Times, Sunday News and a raft of provincial papers in New Zealand.
In Australia, it published the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review.
Yesterday, Australian television broadcaster Seven Network took a stake in John Fairfax as the freshly cashed-up Seven readied for a shake-up of that country's A$12 billion ($11b) media industry.
Shares in Fairfax rose nearly 3 per cent to a six-and-a-half year high of A$5.30.
"Do we have a small stake in Fairfax? Yes, we can confirm that," a spokesman at Seven, the country's second biggest broadcaster controlled by media mogul Kerry Stokes said.
He did not disclose the size.
Seven's stake in Fairfax -- considered one of Australia's four most likely media takeover targets -- was less than 5 per cent, the spokesman said, while a Fairfax spokesman said it could be smaller than 2 per cent. It was not clear when Seven bought the stake.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought 7.5 per cent of Fairfax in October. He later said he did not intend to buy Fairfax.
"People are taking a seat at the table," said Scott Maddock, analyst at 2MG Asset Management.
"Fairfax is probably still too big for Seven to buy themselves, but there are almost certainly assets there that they would like to have a piece of, so it's just being in the game," he said.
Media groups have been jostling for position before new laws come into effect next year allowing owners of one media platform -- newspapers, radio or television -- to own a second platform in the same market.
Seven, which also grabbed a 14.9 per cent stake in West Australian Newspapers Holdings in October, has more than A$3b to invest after last month's A$4b joint venture with private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
In other moves, Publishing & Broadcasting, controlled by James Packer, sold its TV, magazine and internet businesses to a new company to be jointly owned by PBL and private equity investor CVC Asia Pacific, raising A$4.5b.
Macquarie Media Group bought a 13.8 per cent stake in radio and TV station owner Southern Cross Broadcasting Ltd.
"It's certainly very expensive but...it's possible they can structure a deal that makes sense for somebody who can run the business and make something of that," Maddock said.
Tony O'Reilly's Irish newspaper and publishing group Independent News and Media Plc, which controls Australasian media group APN News & Media, is also said to be interested in Fairfax.
APN publishes The New Zealand Herald and eight other dailies in New Zealand, and would have to dispose of some, or all, of those to get competition clearance to buy Fairfax's New Zealand assets.
The Irish billionaire in November said he wanted to buy out the 59 per cent of APN he does not already own, but failed to reach agreement with US private equity firm Providence for the A$3.8b buyout.
Mr O'Reilly's is still attempting to put together another consortium, according to media reports.
Fairfax paid $1.2b three years ago for its New Zealand publishing assets which it bought from the Murdoch controlled Independent Newspapers Ltd.
Earlier this year, Fairfax paid $700m for online auction house Trade Me.
Australian newspaper group Rural Press Ltd, controlled by the Fairfax family, is understood to be interested in Fairfax's New Zealand assets.
- NZPA
