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Irish media tycoon Tony O'Reilly has failed to find a buyer for his media assets down under, including The New Zealand Herald, and is under pressure to offload assets closer to home to ease his empire's debt burden.
Independent News & Media (INM) confirmed it has given up a two-month attempt to sell its 39 per cent stake in APN News & Media, the owner of a number of Australasian radio stations and newspapers.
In New Zealand APN publishes the Herald, 10 regional daily newspapers, the Listener, Woman's Weekly, and nzherald.co.nz.
It also owns The Radio Network, which operates more than 120 radio stations around New Zealand.
In its announcement to the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges, APN said INM had advised there was "significant interest" in the APN stake and its individual divisions, INM had concluded that, "the deteriorating state of credit markets made it difficult for interested parties to put together a fully-financed bid for APN at an appropriate value that would be acceptable to both INM and to the other APN shareholders."
"We note the comment by INM that there was significant interest in APN and its quality portfolio of media assets, and the fact that the process instituted by INM in October has been impacted by the difficult credit markets globally," says the announcement.
A shrinking advertising market, debt levels, the credit crunch and plunging asset values killed off its chances of attracting a decent offer.
O'Reilly had initially envisaged a price tag of A$4 ($5) a share, compared with APN's latest share price of A$2.15.
Speculation about INM's ability to manage its £1.4 ($3.8) billion in borrowings have sent the company's share price down more than 60 per cent in the past two weeks, wiping out £243 million in market value.
The company said it would look to sell "non-strategic core assets" and also "focus on eliminating any loss-making businesses", with the proceeds to be used to pay down debt.
Irish media reports at the weekend suggested it was hoping to raise at least £100 million from selling assets including its British online bingo business, a stake in a German price-comparison venture and its London flagship newspaper, The Independent, which has lost advertising and circulation.
- NZPA
