Media group Seven West Media and broadcaster SCA have agreed to a merger in a cashless transaction.
The deal combines two businesses with "strong positions" in the Australian advertising market across their free-to-air television, streaming, audio, digital and publishing assets.
The merged group would have combined revenue of $1.777 billion and have a market capitalisation of $417 million.
“This combination marks a pivotal moment for Australian media," said Jeff Howard, CEO of Seven West.
"By bringing together the complementary assets and brands of SWM (Seven) and SCA, we are creating a truly national, diversified media organisation with extensive scale and reach across our free-to-air television, streaming, audio, digital and publishing assets.”
Howard will be the CEO of the combined group and John Kelly at SCA will assume the role of group managing director, audio.
Annual pre-tax cost synergies of $25 million to $30 million, to be realised within 18-24 months post completion, have been identified.
These include the reduction of shared corporate overheads and operating expense duplication and facility rationalisation.
The companies have jointly explored the opportunity for revenue synergies by enhancing audience reach and advertising scale.
Further work continues to examine potential revenue synergy quantification and structure an integration plan.
The proposed merger would result in SCA shareholders owning 50.1% and SWM shareholders 49.9% of the combined group.
The Scheme Implementation Deed is subject to regulatory approvals, including ACMA, ACCC and ASX, and the agreement of shareholders.
Kerry Stokes, the chair of Seven West Media, will hand over the chairman's role in the merged entity in February 2026 to Heith Mackay-Cruise, the current chair of SCA.
SCA reported revenue up 5% to $421.9 million for the full year to June, in a challenging advertising market.
Seven West Media posted a 4% drop in revenue to $1.354 billion for the 12 months but said the slide in television advertising was easing.
An overview of the combined group:
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