SE Asian investors buy Australian media company<\/p>\n
SYDNEY (DPA): Cashed-up Asian investors still see Australia as
\na bargain basement of corporate goodies with yet another national
\nicon falling this week to a company awash with Little Dragon
\ncash.<\/p>\n
The company bidding A$554 million (US$443 million) for control
\nof John Fairfax Holdings Ltd, Australia's top publishing house,
\nmay be based in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
But a lot of the cash driving BIL comes from Southeast Asian
\ncompanies like Singapore's Sembawang, Malaysia's Hong Leong and
\nIndonesia's Salim Group.<\/p>\n
The Camerlin consortium of seven Southeast Asian business
\nbehemoths last March paid A$500 million for a 20 percent stake in
\nBIL. The Singapore government, through its investment arm Temasek
\nHoldings, owns another 5.6 percent directly.<\/p>\n
If BIL is as good as its word and is a long-term investor in
\nFairfax, Asian investors with scant regard for a free press may
\nend up controlling Australia's biggest newspaper and its only
\nbusiness daily.<\/p>\n
As well as publishing The Sydney Morning Herald and The
\nAustralian Financial Review, publicly listed Fairfax puts out
\nMelbourne's The Age and is active in electronic publishing.<\/p>\n
All Singapore's newspapers are owned by a government-linked
\ncompany and in Malaysia the ruling National Front government has
\nindirect stakes in the major broadsheets.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, where Liem Sioe Liong's Salim Group owns whole
\nswathes of the economy, newspapers and magazines toe the
\ngovernment line or get closed down.<\/p>\n
But champions of press freedom in Australia may not need to be
\nalarmed at the emergence of BIL as the leading shareholder in
\nFairfax.<\/p>\n
Most analysts expect the canny corporate trader will soon exit
\nthe country's most influential publisher.<\/p>\n
BIL last year bought into New Zealand publisher Wilson and
\nHorton only to sell out months later to Irish media mogul Tony
\nO'Reilly.<\/p>\n
Echoing the view of stockbrokers, News Corp. chairman Rupert
\nMurdoch branded BIL a corporate trader out for a quick buck from
\nFairfax.<\/p>\n
"I don't think Brierley has any intention of owning or
\ncontrolling John Fairfax. They are market opportunists, they are
\nnot serious managers," he said.<\/p>\n
Until last month, Murdoch held a significant stake in Fairfax,
\nwhich he dumped on the open market after deciding Canberra was
\nnot going to ditch rules that restrict foreign ownership of media
\ncompanies to 25 percent.<\/p>\n
The way the market sees it, BIL is gambling that the media
\nownership rules will ease and that it can sell to O'Reilly or
\nanother aspiring mogul at a rich profit.<\/p>\n
BIL protests that this reading is wrong, with BIL director
\nRodney Price insisting that the hold-sell scenario was "complete
\nnonsense".<\/p>\n
"This is a very important strategic investment," said Price,
\nwho negotiated the purchase of Canadian financier Conrad Black's
\nstake in Fairfax.<\/p>\n
But Ron Brierley, the founder and president of BIL, was more
\nhonest, accepting the idea that the buy was more gamble than
\ninvestment.<\/p>\n
"I think gamble is a little bit extreme - but that's the basic
\ntheme," he blurted out on national radio.<\/p>",
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