Bruce McWilliam, once the right hand man to billionaire Kerry Stokes, is attracting support from Southern Cross Media shareholders to be appointed to the board of directors.
According to documents lodged with the ASX, McWilliam, the former commercial director at what was then the Seven network, now has 9.74% of the television and radio group.
That makes him the second largest shareholder after his old boss, billionaire Kerry Stokes, who has a 20% interest in Southern Cross Media Group via his ASX-listed company SGH.
Another shareholder, Billionaire investor Alex Waislitz, controlling 7.5% of Southern Cross, has gone public in support of McWilliam.
“He would clearly add considerable firepower to the board and would be an ideal director to support the CEO to refine and deliver his action plan for the company,” Waislitz told The Australian.
The merger of Seven West and SCA was designed to create a company with a market capitalisation of more than $400 million. It’s currently valued by the market at $270.5 million.
“I believe in the company and the shares came up at a good price given what they were at before the merger,” McWilliam said last month.
McWilliam, assuming he has the backing of former boss Stokes, could have the baking of at least more than one third of the voting shares in the company.
The company has seen considerable change since Seven West and Southern Cross became one company.
Rohan Lund, a former Seven network executive, was last month appointed CEO of Southern Cross. He also was a director on the board.
He replaced Jeff Howard who stepped down in February on the eve of the release of the group's December half results.
McWilliam could take one of several director positions open on the board.
Heith MackayCruise announced earlier this month that he would step down as chairman and retire as a director on June 30. Teresa Dyson is chair-elect.
Ido Leffler is also stepping down as a director.
Southern Cross, in its first combined post-merger results, for both television and audio, reported total revenue down 1.5% to $1.008 billion in the half year to December.
Television revenue dropped 2.1% to $712 million, while audio was up 3.2% to $216.5 million.
No dividends were declared, with the company focused on debt reduction.
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