NZME owns the NZ Herald, BusinessDesk and Newstalk ZB as well as a suite of regional newspapers and entertainment radio stations.
A new billionaire investor of NZ Herald publisher NZME wants a clean-out of the media company’s board.
Auckland-based Canadian private equity businessman Jim Grenon, who owns 9.3% of NZME, has proposed the company appoint four new directors – including himself – and says he has the support of 37% of NZME’s shareholders, according to an NZX notice today.
The other three nominations have not yet been revealed by NZME.
In a statement to Media Insider on Thursday afternoon, the executive chairman of Caniwi Capital Partners Limited, Troy Bowker said: “I will be supporting Mr Grenon’s proposal at the AGM in full and my company (currently) has voting rights for 6,600,000 shares, some of which are held in our name, some in nominee accounts.”
Another name that has been associated by sources with the move is Philip Crump, the lawyer, blogger and commentator who shot to prominence on Twitter through his pen name Thomas Cranmer. He is now a NZ on Air board member and a Waitangi Tribunal member; he messaged Media Insider today, in response to calls and an earlier text message: “No comment at present.”
NZME told the NZX in a statement that it had received a letter from Grenon – who has previously set up an alternative news website The Centrist – in his own right and through his entity JTG4, containing a proposal to remove the current NZME board.
“The draft explanatory notes to Mr Grenon and JTG’s letter indicate that it is intended that the four proposed nominee directors would choose a fifth director from the existing NZME Board,” according to the notice posted to the NZX under NZME chairwoman Barbara Chapman’s name.
NZME has five directors – alongside Chapman are David Gibson, Carol Campbell, Guy Horrocks and Sussan Turner.
Nominations for directors are open until March 11, and will be voted on at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on April 29.
The NZX notice says Grenon is a substantial shareholder of NZME, having disclosed on March 1 his holding of 17,513,849 ordinary shares in NZME (9.321%) as of last Friday. He had stated at the time there was “no current intention” to make a takeover bid.
“Mr Grenon and JTG’s letter states that Mr Grenon and/or JTG currently hold 18,726,824 ordinary shares in NZME (9.97%),” says NZME’s NZX notice.
“Mr Grenon and JTG’s letter states that they have discussed in confidence these proposals with some of NZME’s largest shareholders, who hold approximately 37% of NZME’s shares.
“Mr Grenon and JTG’s letter states that those shareholders have indicated to them their support for these proposals. Mr Grenon and JTG further state that they do not have control of the voting rights of those other shareholders, and that those other shareholders reserve the right to change their indicated intention to support Mr Grenon and JTG’s proposals.
“Mr Grenon and JTG’s letter does not identify the other shareholders with whom they state they have spoken. NZME is not in a position to confirm Mr Grenon or JTG’s statements in the letter regarding such indications from other NZME shareholders.”
Nominations from Osmium Partners
NZME said it had also received additional nominations from another shareholder, Osmium Partners - which owns 6.57% of the company - for the appointment of two new directors, separate from Grenon’s proposed nominees.
“NZME will include details of resolutions and proposed nominations in the Notice of Meeting for the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting to be held on 29 April 2025.”
BusinessDesk revealed in 2023 that Grenon – the founder of Calgary-based investment firm Tom Capital Management – was associated with an alternative news venture, The Centrist, and its sister website NZNE.
As BusinessDesk reported, “NZNE and its sister website, The Centrist, have emerged over the past year amid a proliferation of new media companies formed to challenge established ‘mainstream’ outlets, often targeting disaffected groups on the political fringes”.
The Centrist, as late as last month, was referencing commentary about recent NZME newsroom changes with a headline: “Is the Herald abandoning its role as a newspaper of record in favour of clickbait?”
According to BusinessDesk, Grenon served as the sole shareholder and director of The Centrist until June and August 2023 respectively, before handing over the roles after those dates to Tameem Adam Abdul-majeed Barakat.
He was also one of more than 30 individuals or groups who had registered with the Electoral Commission as “promoters” for the 2023 election.
In an email to the NZ Herald last month, following a request for an interview, Grenon said he would respond, but it would not be in the next few days.
He previously told BusinessDesk, in response to questions about his links to NZNE and The Centrist: “You know, I am a private person, and I would like it to stay that way, so I have no comment.”
The Australian reported recently that “some wealthy Kiwis” – including an unnamed Canadian billionaire – were planning a bigger stake and even looking at privatisation of NZME, which also owns property portal OneRoof.
The Australian speculated new owners could help shape the editorial direction of the Herald.
It suggested that Nick Mowbray – the co-founder of the toy business Zuru – was a potential candidate, along with the unnamed Canadian billionaire.
Mowbray himself quashed speculation of his own involvement. “This is news to me. The Herald is the most fair of [the] NZ media mix,” Mowbray told Media Insider at the time.
In a statement to Media Insider on Friday, NZME chief executive Michael Boggs said: “As a listed company on the NZX and ASX, NZME’s shareholding changes regularly due to trading of shares and changes in shareholders.
“When a shareholder becomes a significant holder (over 5%) they have to notify the exchange, and for every 1% movement thereon in. Through our investor relations programme we regularly engage with shareholders but have had no interaction with Mr Grenon to date.
“As a public company, NZME is governed by an independent Board of Directors who must act in the best interests of the company and all shareholders.”
Grenon moved to New Zealand in 2012 and owns one of the country’s most expensive homes in Takapuna.
In 2023, BusinessDesk reported that Grenon’s enormous wealth and move to New Zealand made headlines in Canada when he shifted C$55 million to New Zealand “while embroiled in court action with the Canada Revenue [Tax] Agency over a sophisticated investment fund structure he had created as the annuitant of a registered retirement savings plan”.
At the heart of the action and appeals, the business website reported, were whether tax exemptions rising from the funds involved were tax avoidance structures.
“At one point, the tax agency tried but failed to stop Grenon from shifting the C$55m to NZ on the basis that an alleged C$283m of tax debt might not be repaid should the agency win its case,” BusinessDesk reported.
“The agency’s so-called jeopardy order to halt the money transfer was unsuccessful. Court hearings, including appeals over nearly a decade, resulted in Grenon securing wins and losses along the way.”
The business website, quoting court documents, said Grenon completed a law degree at the University of Manitoba in 1980.
He practised briefly as a lawyer before pursuing corporate and finance interests. “The documents also revealed he gained significant wealth from the early stages of the oil and gas industry and had a penchant for in-depth study of tax law and, it would appear, for litigation.”
NZME announced last week earnings of $54.2m and a post-tax loss of $16m after a non-cash impairment of intangible assets and said it was considering separating its property brand OneRoof into an entirely new business.
NZME shares were trading at $1.04 before the company’s financial results announcement on Wednesday last week. By the close of day, they had jumped 15% to $1.20 on the NZX. They have eased back slightly in the past week and were at $1.15 on Thursday.
San Francisco-based investment firm Osmium Partners was established in 2002, according to its website. “We focus on investing in high-quality, small-capitalisation public equities via an exhaustive, bottom-up research process,” it says.
It says Osmium seeks to generate strong, risk-adjusted returns by investing in undervalued, small capitalisation companies.
”Our research process is based on eight simple factors involving balance sheet strength, aligned interests, attractive reinvestment opportunities, a low valuation, and reasonable growth prospects,” it says.
“As engaged owners, we actively discuss corporate strategy and capital structure with management teams and boards of directors.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
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