Is this SCA’s New Chairman?

In ten days, Southern Cross Media will hand down their half year results for the period ending December 31.

On Feb 25, Max Moore-Wilton, who has been chair of the Southern Cross Media Board for the last 8 years, will be replaced by a non-executive Chairman. The hunt for a new Southern Cross Media Chairman started last year when Max announced he was planning to exit in the New Year. Deputy Chairman Leon Pasternak was charged with the task of securing candidates. Have they found one?

Today The Australian Financial Review reports that SCM is in advanced talks with Peter Bush.

The paper says:   “An agreement is not yet guaranteed, not least because Mr Bush is currently chairman of two other listed ASX companies, Pacific Brands and Mantra Group, the hotels business.”

AFR flagged that Southern Cross was keen to announce his appointment at the companies’ half-year results on Feb 25. Peter Bush’s background includes seeing the turn around of McDonalds in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Australia’s largest merger between Ampol and Caltex, the Arnott restructure and also with Nine Entertainment Holdings in 2011 to 2013 as Southern Cross attempted to merge with the television network.

AFR also confirmed our earlier report that the appointment of the new Chairman would be a non-executive rather than an executive role. That means Rhys Holleran  would keep the Chief Executive position but the paper did say “questions may arise about Mr Holleran's longer-term future”.

Who takes the chair should be revealed February 25th, along with the the Half Year results. 

In October 2014 Southern Cross Media were forecasting results would again be down by 18% for the first half. This follows last years net loss of $296 mil, a 408% decline due to significant write-downs. Its Net Profit after Tax excluding significant items for 2014 was $79.9m. 

There has been persistent speculation in financial markets that the company is at risk of breaching covenants on its $646.6m debt which would be a big concern for the company.

You can read more about the potential Chair appointment in The Australian Financial Review here.