ARN Media’s play to takeover SCA scuttled as Anchorage pulls out

Several sources have told Radio Today that Anchorage Capital Partners has pulled out of the plan with ARN Media to takeover Southern Cross Austereo,

Last Thursday we were informed by the same sources that an All Staff meeting had been called at ARN HQ for that afternoon or for the following day (Friday) apparently to inform staff that the deal had been finalised and what they should expect from it. The meeting never took place.

Instead, as crisis meeting was held early this morning in an attempt to salvage the proposal.

The proposal centered around a plan to takeover SCA and then redistribute their existing station networks between ARN and Anchorage so that ARN would not fall foul of the two stations per market rule but would give them the two stations in each major market that they don’t have now but SCA does.

In the asset swap ARN would have kept KIIS and taken over Triple M along with 88 of the regional stations owned by SCA. Anchorage would own the Pure Gold and Hit brands, as well as 35 regional stations and the regional TV network. They would co-own a separate digital streaming business, presumably, merging LiSTNR with iHeart.

Sources close to the deal say that there’s been some substantial changes to the assets involved just in the past week. WIN Corporation and Seven West Media announced a joint venture in north-western Victoria, Mildura Digital Television, would close down, ending Network Ten’s free-to-air signal in a large chunk of the coverage area. That company’s television sales has been represented by Southern Cross, and was one of the assets involved in the deal.

More details as they come to hand.