Oz's Media Services inks pacts with Packer units
PBL becomes majority shareholder, Falloon on board
The result is that Packer's public entity Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. emerges as TMS' largest shareholder, with a 11.45% stake, and PBL chief exec Nick Falloon will join the TMS board.
TMS said it's buying nearly half of the 40% stake held by Packer's private company Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH) in rival screen contractor Media Entertainment Group for $A7.6 million ($4.9 million).
Simultaneously, TMS said its subsid Val Morgan Cinema Advertising has entered an exclusive seven-year deal to service all Hoyts Cinemas locations in Australia. Hoyts has just been acquired by CPH, so this arrangement douses industry speculation that Hoyts would ditch Val Morgan and move its business to MEG, where a Packer-appointed board and management took control earlier this year.
TMS said another subsid, Global Television, has clinched an exclusive 10-year production contract with Packer's Nine Network that covers all outside broadcasts, and entails Global buying Nine's fleet of outside broadcast vehicles and equipment.
For these assets and the production pact, TMS is allotting 11 million shares to PBL, which in turn agreed to buy 5.5 million TMS shares for $5.8 million.
The deal gives TMS the chance to boost its services to Nine if, as it has been rumored, the network decides to sell its Sydney studios, and outsource studio work and post-production.
