Rival publishers NZME and Stuff had been in discussions about NZME buying Stuff's masthead publishing business. Photo / RNZ
Rival publishers NZME and Stuff had been in discussions about NZME buying Stuff's masthead publishing business. Photo / RNZ
The Auckland businessman wanting an overhaul of media company NZME’s board has confirmed he made an inquiry to buy rival publisher Stuff five years ago.
“All I will say is I did inquire, through legal counsel, to show I was real,” businessman Jim Grenon said in an email response toNZ Herald questions.
The approach was made to Stuff’s then-Australian owner, media company Nine Entertainment, during the first Covid lockdown in New Zealand, which started in March 2020.
Stuff was sold by Nine in a management buyout to Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher for $1 in May 2020.
Grenon said Nine did not respond to his legal counsel’s approach, “which seemed odd to me, since I could obviously pay more and would not need any government approval”.
NZME had also been vying to buy Stuff at the time.
Grenon said he “never suggested my price would be $1″, referring to speculation in a report in The Australian this week that he “put his hand up to buy the company for the same price” as Boucher.
Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher bought the company for $1 in May 2020.
Grenon, a Canadian businessman who has lived in New Zealand since 2012, later went on to invest in alternative news brands NZ News Essentials and Centrist.
He served as the sole shareholder and director of Centrist until June and August 2023, respectively, before handing over the roles after those dates to Tameem Adam Abdul-majeed Barakat.
Grenon has since become a 9.97% shareholder in NZME, with more than 18.7 million shares. NZME shares opened at $1.16 on Tuesday morning.
Grenon will seek next month to become NZME’s new chairman, alongside three of his own board nominees. He has indicated he has some 47% of NZME shareholders supporting him to date, although some have reserved their right to change their views. Other reports have him at more than 50% support.
He has been critical of the company’s financial and operational performance, raising a number of concerns and comments in an 11-page letter to the existing board and shareholders. That letter forms the basis of his push to be voted on to the board at the company’s annual shareholders meeting on April 29.
NZME released the letter on Friday last week, saying: “Despite Mr Grenon submitting the letter to be included in the notice of meeting, he has disclosed certain parts or all of it to select shareholders and some media.
“The NZME board is committed to transparency for all shareholders and is concerned Mr Grenon’s approach to disclosure is inconsistent with this. As a result, the NZME board has decided to release the letter to the market now, ahead of distribution of the notice of meeting to ensure all shareholders have access to it.”
Grenon told the Herald yesterday, in response to those comments, that NZME was required to include the letter in the notice of meeting, “but there was no restriction, at all, to them disclosing it earlier”.
“That was their decision and if they were in any way confused they could have asked,” he said.
“The only way I can gather shareholder support, from complete strangers, is to provide them with this sort of information. It is my material and I am completely free to do that.
“As a practical matter, I did not know the contact details for many shareholders before NZME announced my competing slate of directors. Many of the more significant shareholders have now approached me.”
He said not surprisingly, no small shareholders had approached him.
“Many of them will not vote but they will all get their material in due time, including contact information to which they can email questions.
“I do not have the same obligation NZME does to provide information to all shareholders at the same time. Any suggestion by NZME to the contrary is simply wrong.”
Meanwhile, it was revealed late last week that Stuff had withdrawn from discussions for a potential deal to sell its masthead division - including The Press and The Post newspapers and websites - to NZME.
NZME said, in a notice to the NZX early on Friday afternoon, that it had been in discussions with Stuff to buy the Stuff Masthead Publishing division but that Stuff had paused talks while it awaited the outcome of NZME’s board vote next month.
In its own statement, Stuff said it had withdrawn from the talks and had “no intention of resuming discussions at this stage”.
The masthead division includes the paywalled Post and Press websites but not the overall mass-market and free Stuff website.
NZME’s NZX statement said that on March 6 - following NZME’s announcement that Grenon was proposing new directors and a cleanout of the NZME board - “Stuff advised NZME that Stuff was pausing discussions in relation to any potential transaction until the composition of the NZME board is known following the outcome of NZME’s annual shareholders’ meeting”.
“There is no certainty that NZME will re-engage in any discussions with Stuff or that if such discussions occur, they will result in any transaction,” said the statement.
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.
