Ace Radio lease not affected by Nine Radio acquisition

Many questions are flying around the radio industry after today’s Nine Radio acquisition by the Laundy family. Two most asked questions to us today are:

• What will be the new radio company’s name?
• Will the new owners dump the Ace Radio deal?

The answer to the first question is, ‘don’t know yet.’

The answer to the second question is more straight forward. No, the Laundy family are bound by the Ace Radio lease deal.

When Nine bought the radio stations from Macquarie Radio/Fairfax 7 years ago for $275 million, there were a number of regulatory questions about Nine Entertainment’s share of media voice in the major metro markets, with its ownership of tv, newspapers and radio stations. The Ace deal solved that.

Ace Radio leased the stations for a ten year period, with six years left to run on the deal.

It worked for everyone, it expanded the Ace Radio footprint and gave them an advertising beach head in Sydney and Melbourne and a presence in the GfK ratings for its music formatted stations. It allowed Nine to keep ownership of the stations, without being in breach of any rules, because Ace Radio was running them. It also ensured that 2GB would not be challenged by someone else who might have bought the stations and mounted another commercial talk format up against 2GB and 3AW.  A win-win.

The Laundy family are described as honest people who honour a handshake. The Ace Radio lease is more than just a firm handshake deal, it is not expected to be broken by the new owners.

Ace Radio CEO Mark Taylor says: “Our lease is not affected, we look forwrd to working with the new owners.”