By Gavin Lower
MELBOURNE--Seven Group Holdings Ltd. (SVW.AU) is yet to decide
whether it will sell its 25% stake in Consolidated Media Holdings
Ltd. (CMJ.AU) to News Corp. (NWS), Chief Executive Peter Gammell
told analysts and reporters during a conference call Tuesday.
News Corp., the owner of The Wall Street Journal, has proposed
buying Consolidated Media, which holds 25% of leading pay
television company Foxtel, for 1.97 billion Australian dollars
(US$2.04 billion).
"It's hard to make a decision without a proposal. In the
fullness of time I'm sure that News will come forward with some
proposal and we'll give you our reaction at that time," Mr. Gammell
said.
Asked about Seven Group's request to Australia's competition
regulator, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission,
for a review of whether it could buy the shares in Consolidated
Media it doesn't already own, Mr. Gammell said the company wanted
to know what alternatives were available to it.
"That doesn't mean to say that we are going to buy it, it just
means we want to know whether we can buy it then we'll make that
decision as well," he said.
Write to Gavin Lower at gavin.lower@wsj.com
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