Oh my gosh you guys, they did it!
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Thank you for explaining this. Was confused as to why the company would be changing its name under a day before the acquisition occurs and it essentially becomes irrelevant.
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Well I wonder if anyone say this one coming…
Media proprietor Antony Catalano and backer Alex Waislitz are considering taking their regional newspapers and real estate classifieds businesses to the ASX boards in an ambitious plan involving what was Prime Media Group.
Antony Catalano supported Seven West Media’s bid for Prime Media. Now he’s trying to get his hands on Prime’s shell company. Jesse Marlow
It is understood the pair are considering a backdoor listing for their assets, including Australian Community Newspapers and 20-year-old real estate portal realestateview.com.au, in a deal that could see them also raise fresh capital from new and existing investors to try to grow both businesses.
The plan would see Catalano and Waislitz’s investment vehicle, WA Chess Investments Pty Ltd, take control of PRT Company Ltd, which is the shell company left behind from Seven West Media’s acquisition of regional television broadcaster Prime.
STAFF NOTE: I’ve reopened this thread to discuss this particular article - any other unrelated discussion will be removed
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How much would they ever be able to raise from community newspapers and a relatively unknown real estate site?
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If Catalano still has TV ambitions then I don’t understand why he’s not offering SCA some cash for their TV arm?
There’s a bit of cross over there and SCA are on the record saying their TV assets are available for the right price. Perhaps even Catalano can see owning regional 10 affiliates is a dud.
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Everyone has known that for 30 years.
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What would taking control of a remnant company that holds no assets do for them?
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It appears from the article that it gives them a vehicle to be listed without an IPO and may be able to take advantage of some tax matters
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It’s not really - it, along with RealEstate.com.au and Domain form the 3 major real estate sites in Australia. The vast majority of properties are listed on all 3.
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Yes but how many people have heard of it? I hadn’t until yesterday.
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Anywhere with an ACM masthead will have seen it (whether they’ve paid attention to it or not is a different story) - its replaced the Domain branding for ACM’s real estate sections
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It used to be owned by the Real Estate Institute of Victoria so was favored by real estate agents as it was cheaper to list on. It was used by many agencies to power the listings on their own websites. So it’s well known in the Victorian market, although would have a lower market share these days.
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Definitely not “relatively unknown”. Properties of most people I know who’ve been selling have been listed on that as well as domain.com.au. These are people in WA and NSW too, so not just Victoria.
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I didn’t see this (only reading the entire thread late Aug 2022), probably changed now; however thank you to @Nick for upholding grammatical standards. We need more of that online.
Also, well done @Nick and @Moe for your detailed interpretations of the BSA. I have cross checked what you interpreted and believe you’re correct.
Onto overlaps, I agree with @dutymainttech and others, rationalisation will be required for the 600MHz clearance.
Remember that 7MHz is a legacy of the analogue bandwidth required for transmission. Bandwidths of restacked channels could be slimmer/more or fatter/less. You could retain the discrete licence area overlaps, bundle the regional and metros together and perhaps remove duplication of the sub channels and retain the main channels, fit them within a single mux.
Take the Gold Coast as an example. At aggregation in the 90’s, the NEN licence for Prime Gold Coast was vastly different with local news twice a night, all AFL games too unprofitable for BTQ in league mad Bris to show yet served the ‘south of Murray’ diaspora on the coast and other program variations including daylight saving until a complaint was made and delay was required. Heady days and great contributor to the Coast.
Only cost cutting by Prime reduced the point of difference of the NEN signal to what it is now. Business takes a long term view that although there may be a commercial setting currently limiting investment, it doesn’t mean the value should be wiped altogether by extinguishing the licence overlap as who knows how technology and audience demand may adapt in decades beyond.
On the Gold Coast, RTN/NRN fought hard in pre aggregation days (before my birth) to be allowed a level playing field when UHF translators were established. Common ownership doesn’t necessarily mean that should be undone; there are technical innovations to retain both licences and reduce duplication of the non main channels which have no history/custom/expectation of being localised.
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