Antony Catalano looks for a way into the Southern Cross Austereo deal
The Australian Community Media owner has long harboured ambitions of creating a regional media giant with exposures across print, online and television.
For close observers of Australian corporate media, the developments of the last 24 hours have felt strangely familiar. Antony Catalano is at it again.
The Australian Community Media owner is currently sounding out Southern Cross Austereo chief executive John Kelly as part of a move to pry the door open to a deal of his own with the ASX-listed company behind the Triple M and Hit radio networks and the operator of regional affiliate stations with all three commercial free-to-air broadcasters.
Southern Cross last Wednesday was subject to a conditional takeover offer from ASX-listed rival ARN Media, which operates the KIIS FM radio network, and private equity group Anchorage Capital, in a deal that values the company at about $330 million.
Under the deal, ARN Media, which is being advised by Jefferies and Gilbert + Tobin, would own SCA's five metro radio licenses as part of the deal, giving it KIIS and Triple M in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. It would also pick up 51 of Southern Scross's regional radio stations, taking its national network to 88 stations in total.
