Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon's 'clever' move on Ten, Commonwealth Bank mulls receiver

Max Mason and Anne Hyland

Jun 25, 2017 – 11.00pm

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Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon's move to potentially take control of Network Ten after withdrawing their backing for a new loan to keep the broadcaster afloat is "just clever business", says former competition tsar Graeme Samuel.

Meanwhile, sources said Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which is on the hook for a $200 million loan to Ten, is actively weighing up the appointment of receiver PPB as soon as this week. Mr Gordon and Mr Murdoch are guarantors, along with James Packer, of the CBA loan to Ten.

Max Mason covers insolvency, courts, financial crime, cybercrime and corporate wrongdoing. A Walkley Award winner, Max’s journalism has also received awards from the National Press Club of Australia, the Kennedy Awards and Citibank. Message Max on Signal https://tinyurl.com/MaxMason

Anne Hyland is the Financial Review’s Companies Editor. She’s a former deputy editor of Good Weekend and Asia correspondent for The AFR.