Seven West Media (SWM) has announced that it has entered into a conditional Share Sale Agreement to acquire Prime Media Group (PRT) has .
As a sale of main undertaking for ASX Listing Rules purposes, the acquisition will be subject to a vote of the PRT shareholders to be held in December 2021.
Seven said that it believes in the rationale of a combined Seven and Prime business model which will create a wholly-owned commercial premium broadcast, video and news network across Australia with the potential to reach more than 90% of the Australian population every month.
Seven managing director and CEO, James Warburton, said: “This proposal is an important step forward for both companies. SWM and PRT are great partners and have a long, successful relationship. Together, they will offer the best content for our national audience and unmatchable premium revenue opportunities for our clients.
“The acquisition means SWM will become Australia’s leading commercial premium broadcast, video and news network, with the potential to reach more than 90% of Australia’s population each month.
“The proposed transaction is an exciting and transformative development for advertisers and media buyers. It means we will be able to give advertisers easy and seamless access via a single platform to capital city and regional markets,” he said.
This is the second attempt by Seven to acquire Prime after the company first tried back in 2019 in the early days of Warburton’s tenure. At the time, Bruce Gordon and Antony Catalano torpedoed the merger of Seven West Media and Prime Media with combined shareholdings that were sufficient to block the deal.
Gordon said at the time he would not support the Prime-Seven merger, because it did not offer good value to shareholders.
In August, Warburton delivered the company full-year results revealing a significant jump in profit for the year ended June 26. In addition to a profit of $229m, group net debt dropped 40% to $240m.
Metro FTA ad dollars lifted 25.8% in the second half of the year, up 11.5% across the whole year.
Like Seven’s counterparts, digital ad revenue was the star performer, 7plus revenue was up 78% YOY, with market share improving too.