mergers & acquisitions 
Trading of shares in Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), the holding company for the Packer family’s media assets, and is Australia’s biggest media and gaming company, was suspended yesterday, amid speculation that it was moving to sell TV network, Channel Nine, ACP magazines and Nine MSN to private equity group, . Up for sale or partial sale by PBL chairman, James Packer, are what would appear to be prime assets founded or built up by his late father, Kerry Packer, in order to further the current chairman’s vision of expanding the company’s casino and gambling activities in Europe and Asia.

An announcement is expected tomorrow, Thursday, after the company and its advisers, among them UBS, and its new partners have finalised the details of the transactions involved. Speculation is rife as to which assets may be on the block and how the deal could be structured, with analysts suggesting private equity groups such as Newbridge Capital and CVC Capital (the financiers of last year’s Flint Group buyout) may be putting up some of the money required for the deal.

Though PBL has so far declined to comment, the Fairfax-owned Australian Financial Review says PBL will aim to retain control of its current media operations, maintaining 50 per cent equity in the businesses.

Bankers, UBS and ABN AMRO have been quoted as suggesting that PBL may be looking to sell up to A$6.5bn of its media assets.

Analysts have further suggested that a reformed media group based on significant equity in the powerful PBL stable of media assets could be a spearhead for further acquisition and consolidation of the media market in the wake of introduction of new media laws, citing Fairfax and West Australian Newspapers as possible targets.

PBL chairman, James Packer, is understood to control 38.4 per cent of the company since Kerry Packer’s death last December.