Ann: Change in substantial holding, page-2

todays Australian
Extract only

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so I thought the change to media laws still did not permit an owner to purchase two TV stations in the one mkt?? So Gordon could not own both Prime and WIN ???

Is that right?
If so, what's he doing?

Spheria bought the balance of the shares sold by Perpetual.

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Bruce Gordon’s raid on Prime Media shares has sparked talk of a potential merger between the regional television network and his WIN Television.

Mr Gordon has boosted his interest in Prime from 14.99 per cent to just under 20 per cent, according to a source familiar with the transaction, who said it was closed out through a series of complex cash-settled equity swaps through Deutsche Bank.

The Bermuda-based billionaire in understood to have increased his stakes in a number of listed companies using the same method, which does not attract the same level of scrutiny as a block trade.

Deutsche Bank was behind the trade of 18 million Prime shares at 33.25c a share on Tuesday.
The businessman already held a majority stake in Prime, after lifting his shareholding in a series of transactions last year. At the same time, key shareholder Perpetual has cut its stake in Prime from 13.1 per cent to 7.4 per cent.

News of Mr Gordon’s latest sharemarket dealings comes as media companies eye each other ahead of an expected round of mergers and acquisitions, after the federal government last year relaxed media ownership laws, freeing up proprietors to strike deals that could transform the $16 billion industry and help claw back millions of dollars of advertising revenue lost to the online giants.

Regional operators are also grappling with the shift to online broadcasting by their affiliate free-to-air partners which threaten to undermine their existing franchise.

WIN and Prime generally compete in the same broadcasting regions. WIN carries programming from Network Ten, while Prime broadcasts content from Seven Network.

Mr Gordon is believed to be hungry for a deal, having previously considered merging his privately-owned WIN with Nine or Ten before the new media laws were debated.