WAN will go from being undergeared and a sleepy Perth-based newspaper company, to being the new version of Seven Media Group.
WesTrac
Business As Usual: UK spending cuts means days of whine and rises … Apple hits new high …
Britain joins the austerity club tomorrow night with about £85 billion of spending cuts. Plus, iPhone orders lift Apple’s worth again, US banks continue to fail and other business news of the day.
Stokes’ transformative WesTrac deal will go down in history
Yesterday, the $2 billion Seven-WesTrac deal got the official thumbs up. Now Kerry Stokes can celebrate the $1 billion of his private debt now safely housed in his new 68% owned listed conglomerate.
Business As Usual: China moves to correction territory … trifecta for Stokes …
China’s stock market move into correction territory yesterday, while its property sector is being crunched … Kerry Stokes got a trifecta yesterday … The Japanese car market takes a dive … Another seven US banks bit the dust and were closed by regulators …
Mayne: Why the judge should make further inquiries on Seven deal
Before approving the deal between Seven and Westrac, Justice Jacobson should establish precisely what has gone on between Stokes, independent fund managers and the independent directors who are meant to representing the non-Stokes Seven shareholders.
Stokes savours his sweet merger victory
Kerry Stokes is this morning savoring victory in the heated Seven-WesTrac merger, with 88% of shareholders voting in favour of the deal. But a substantial number of retail shareholders remain unconvinced.
The final insult: Stokes refuses to attend Seven EGMs
Kerry Stokes has taken the unprecedented step of declaring that his job as executive chairman of Seven doesn’t include fronting retail investors at tomorrow’s shareholder meeting.
Stokes crafts a sensible compromise, now for the new directors
It’s game, set and match for Kerry Stokes’ conglomeration of his media and equipment empire, with institutional shareholders almost certain to approve the $2 billion related party transaction in Sydney next Tuesday.
Stokes’ successful merger hides behind-the-scenes campaign of spin
The Seven Network and WesTrac are set to merge, following a concerted campaign of intimidation and aggressive lobbying by the Seven-Stokes camp.
Excessive debt sees Kerry Stokes labelled ‘former billionaire’
The Camp Stokes roadshow swung through Melbourne yesterday but there was no attempt to make contact with Crikey or the shareholder activist who has gone half a dozen rounds with the former billionaire at various AGMs over the years.
How debt-laden Coates Hire takeover hurt Kerry Stokes
Just because Kerry Stokes wants to pay down some private debt without triggering a big tax bill through a capital return of Seven’s cash doesn’t mean that institutional investors should be dragged along to create a hotch-potch conglomerate.
Kerry Stokes’ Caterpillar: the 1000 pound dozer in the room
The question remains, who benefits the most from Kerry Stokes’ WesTrac shuffle? Seems clear that the big winner will be Stokes himself.
Stokes poised for media domination after Seven mining move
Kerry Stokes wants to tighten his hold on the the Seven Network by selling his huge WesTrac business into Seven in exchange for a controlling interest in the group. He’s turning Seven into, essentially, a construction company.
WesTrac gives Stokes reason to smile
Kerry Stokes’ fortunes are looking up: not in the Australian media, but in his most important business, WesTrac, which is one of the world’s major distributors of Caterpillar products.
