There remained $500 million of debt sitting in Bond Media. As Alan Bond went under, Packer converted this $250 million into a 37% stake in Bond Media. Kerry received $800 million in cash, with $250 million left in Bond Media as subordinated debt. Packer was then able to re-invest the proceeds in a 25% share in the Foxtel pay TV consortium.Īfter the sale to Bond, Packer said that he had regretted the decision to sell Nine and wished he had not gone through with the transaction.Īt the 2006 PBL AGM, Kerry's son James told of the true complexities of the deal. Later, on the subject, he famously quipped "You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, and I've had mine". It was widely reported that he sold Bond the Nine Network at the record price of AUD$1.05 billion in 1987, and then bought it back three years later for a mere $250 million, when Bond's empire was collapsing. In 1987 Packer made a fortune at the expense of disgraced tycoon Alan Bond. Kerry took over the running of PBL in 1974, on the death of his father. He was not originally destined for the role, but in the early 1970s Kerry took the place of the designated successor, his older brother, the late Clyde Packer, after Clyde fell out with their father, quit PBL and moved to America. Sir Frank wanted Kerry to experience work in the Newspaper Industry from the ground up, so Packer started in the loading dock of the Sydney newspaper The Telegraph, loading papers. Packer's grandfather Robert Clyde Packer owned two Sydney newspapers whilst his father, Sir Frank Packer, was one of Australia's first media moguls, and Kerry's son, James Packer, is Executive Chairman of PBL. The Packer family has long been involved in media. The Packer empire includes magazines and television networks, telecommunications, petrochemicals, heavy engineering, a 75% stake in the Perisher Blue ski resort, diamond exploration, coalmines and property, a share in the Foxtel cable TV network, and investments in the lucrative casino business in Australia and overseas. Kerry Packer was also one of Australia's largest landholders, a fact that contributed in 2003 to a discovery of a deposit of rubies on one of his huge properties. The Packer family's business reputation suffered a blow when One.Tel, a telco which his son James Packer had invested in, collapsed in 2001. Further, his principal Australian investments in television and casinos were highly protected from competition by government regulation which Packer and his employees worked very hard to have maintained. Kerry's independent business life began after his father's death in 1974, when he inherited control of the family's controlling share in PBL, valued at $AUD100 million. Moreover, Packer was not the first choice to take over the running of the family's business empire - in fact his father had intended that Kerry's older brother Clyde Packer would take over the company, but Clyde fell out with his father in the early Seventies and left Australia for good. As pointed out by internet news outlet Crikey if $100 million had been invested in the Australian sharemarket in September 1974 through a balanced portfolio of the top 200 companies, that portfolio would be worth a lot more than $6.9 billion in December 2005, possibly as much as $11 billion. Packer was widely respected in business circles, courted by politicians on both sides, and he was widely regarded as one of the most astute businessmen of his time, despite the fact that he had been a poor student.Īlthough Packer's reputation as an astute businessman was legendary and he did make some good investments, he was by no means a self-made man - his grandfather and his father Frank Packer had built up the Consolidated Press empire and its related holdings over many decades. He was involved in a number of other gambling and tourism ventures, notably the Crown Casino in Melbourne. Packer, through the family company Consolidated Press Holdings, was the major shareholder, with a 38% holding, in Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), which owns the Nine television network and Australian Consolidated Press, which produces many of Australia's top-selling magazines. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. This section does not cite any references or sources.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |