Kerry Stokes' Seven swansong tainted by shareholder backlash
At the company’s AGM, investors had a message for the billionaire: patience is wearing thin for Seven’s plans on executive pay, and its falling market value.
After five decades in the Australian media business, most of them spent as one of the nation’s most influential powerbrokers, billionaire Kerry Stokes has likely fronted Seven West Media shareholders as chairman for the last time.
And they had a sharp message for the billionaire: patience is wearing thin for Seven’s plans on executive pay, its failure to declare a dividend in years, and a share price circling the drain.
Stokes, 85, will stand down as chairman of Seven early next year — if its merger with Southern Cross Austereo is approved — with a share price down more than 99% from its 2007 highs of more than $14 a share, when the broadcaster was at the peak of its powers.
Nearly 20 years later, Seven does not wield anywhere near the influence it once did — and it has a $0.14 share price to match. At Seven’s AGM on Thursday, Stokes faced simmering shareholder resentment over the company’s evaporating market value.
