Daily Mail owner bucks poor media-governance trend LiamWardProud
Liberal Brits cringe at the sometimes retrograde treatment of society’s minorities in the Daily Mail’s pages. Minority investors, though, are getting a fair showing from the group’s controlling Rothermere family. It’s a governance lesson for European media tycoons.
The sector is littered with companies dominated by a large shareholder. Vivendi’s Vincent Bolloré, Lagardere’s Arnaud Lagardere and the Berlusconi family’s Mediaset have all been accused of poor governance or potential conflicts of interests. A spinoff by Daily Mail and General Trust, in which the Rothermeres control all voting rights, ostensibly raises similar red flags. The 2.
Instead Jonathan Harmsworth, aka Viscount Rothermere, seems to be penalising himself to get the deal approved. In return for one share, outside investors get almost one-fifth of a Euromoney share, about 68 pence in cash and just over half a share in the slimmed-down parent. Add it up, adjust for cancelled shares, and the value is 6.57 pounds. Rothermere gets less than 26 pence in cash and just under one share in the remaining Mail group, implying a value of 6.17 pounds.
He’s admittedly boosting his economic stake – to 36 percent including voting shares from 24 percent. But that’s 2.6 percentage points less than if he had taken Euromoney shares on the same terms as everyone else. That should help him muster the support of three-quarters of independent shareholders set as the approval threshold. It also avoids having to hold Euromoney shares directly, which would violate the Rothermere trusts’ mandate as a steward of the Daily Mail parent.
Rothermere isn’t obliged to seek approval from three-quarters of unaffiliated investors. But the move reflects a culture of more generous minority investor protections under UK law: a 2009 study scored Britain five out of six on the Antidirector Rights Index, a measure of shareholder protections, compared with France’s 3.5 and Italy’s two.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Daily Mail owner to return Euromoney stake to shareholdersThe owner of Britain's Daily Mail newspaper plans to return all of its shar...
Read more »
How daily life will benefit from 5G5G is more than super-fast broadband, it has the potential to change everything from transport to agriculture.
Read more »
Tencent, Kakao among shortlisted bidders for South Korean gaming firm Nexon: Korea Economic DailyChinese tech giant Tencent and South Korea's biggest chat operator Kakao Co...
Read more »
5 powerful daily routines of insanely happy and productive people5 powerful daily routines of insanely happy and productive people via CNBCMakeIt
Read more »