APN News and Media has lodged a trading halt with the ASX over its New Zealand business NZME.
In a statement, APN notes the halt is over an announcement “concerning a potential material transaction by APN in relation to APN's NZ business NZME”. The halt is expected to remain in place until the commencement of trading on Wednesday 11 May when APN will hold its Annual General Meeting.
The Australian reports that APN is preparing to launch a capital raising of $200 million in order to demerge its NZ assets, which including newspaper The New Zealand Herald.
The announcement comes as APN looks to divest its Australian Regional Media (ARM) assets following mixed full year results, announced to the market in February.
APN News and Media CEO Ciaran Davis told AdNews at the time that the business had a number of positives but required a signficant investment to make a successful reposition to digital.
“New ownership should give ARM the flexibility to invest where required, to continue to providing quality news and content to its audiences, without having to compete for APN’s capital,” he said at the time.
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