By Gillian Tan and Rebecca Howard
WELLINGTON--News Corp. (NWS, NWSA) is selling its entire stake
in New Zealand's biggest pay-television operator as it reshapes its
balance sheet before a separation of its publishing and
entertainment assets.
News Corp. said Monday that its News Ltd. unit was selling its
44% stake in Sky Network Television Ltd. (SKT.NZ) to a broad range
of institutional and retail investors.
By the end of June, News Corp. plans to split its giant
entertainment businesses, which include its 20th Century Fox film
studio and Fox television assets, from its publishing division to
create two separately listed companies.
The publishing division includes newspapers such as The Wall
Street Journal, the Australian and the Times of London, and book
publishing and marketing inserts.
A Sky Network Television spokeswoman confirmed the transaction
was taking place. A person familiar with the matter told The Wall
Street Journal Monday that News Corp. had deemed the stake
"non-core".
News has appointed Deutsche Bank to underwrite and, together
with Craigs Investment Partners, manage the stake sale, Sky Network
Television said in a statement to New Zealand's stock exchange.
The person familiar said a bookbuild was being conducted at 4.80
New Zealand dollars (US$3.95) a share. It will raise NZ$815 million
and is being conducted at a 7.2% discount to the stock's
last-traded price of NZ$5.17 a share.
Grant Williamson, a broker at Hamilton Hindin Greene, said
Monday the sale marks one of the largest block trades to take place
on the New Zealand market. Sky Network Television has been placed
on a trading halt for up to two days. Trading is expected to resume
no later than Wednesday.
News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall
Street Journal and this newswire.
Write to Gillian Tan at gillian.tan@wsj.com and Rebecca Howard
at rebecca.howard@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires