Annette Sharp: Bruce Gordon’s Nine plan shocked industry insiders

When WIN boss Bruce Gordon sold off chunks of his property portfolio, people assumed the 95-year-old was preparing for his earthly departure. How wrong they were, writes Annette Sharp.

At 95, media tycoon Bruce Gordon has at last realised his hard-won ambition: to be the most influential man in Australian free-to-air television.

Most agree, however, that to look at him, you’d scarcely believe the old fella had it in him. In the flesh Gordon is looking and sounding his age, or so report those who have had recent dealings with the billionaire.

His voice is thin, his balance and mobility in decline, rendering him increasingly reliant on a wheelchair often navigated by his capable and personable second wife Judith, 76.

Yet, despite appearances, Gordon is having something of a golden run, having spent the first half of the year selling down his property portfolio before strategically expanding his interest in media company Nine Entertainment Co.

In the space of five whirlwind months, depending on who you talk to, Gordon has gone from being a man in the process of consolidating his investments due to failing health to being the most powerful and dangerous man in the Australian commercial television industry, descendant though it may be.

Bruce Gordon with his daughter Genevieve back in 2010.

The sale of two significant Wollongong properties for $80 million within a three-month window at the start of the year had some suggesting Gordon had made his last calculated power play and was selling down his portfolio and checking his chips.

The theory received a shot in the arm with the sale of Gordon’s historic Scarborough Hotel, haven for motor bike riders and Sea Cliff Bridge trekkers and the oldest licenced premises in the City of Wollongong, in early April for $9.5 million.

Then, weeks later, came the $70 million sale of a much-trumpeted commercial site in the heart of Wollongong’s CDB. Wollongong, the regional base of Gordon’s WIN Television operations for 61 years, was to be the location for Gordon’s ambitious $300-500 million proposed commercial/residential development, WIN Grand.

A source for Gordon previously told this writer the media boss was “giving back to the ’Gong” by building the substantial retail and entertainment hub in the city that gave him his start as a media proprietor in 1979.

His retreat from the development, after first seeking partners for a joint venture, sent shockwaves through the regional hub where Gordon has long exercised his influence, notably through broader regional investments including as a 50 per cent shareholder in NRL team St George Illawarra Dragons.

To many it appeared Gordon could only have one reason for doing it: He was tidying up his investment portfolio in readiness for his earthly departure; succession planning for his three heirs, Judith, son Andrew and daughter Genevieve, 33.

Then in June came his stunning power play.

Gordon arriving at the Ten Network AGM at the Four Seasons hotel in Sydney in 2016. Picture: John Feder

Through his private company Birketu he lifted his stake in Nine to 25.1 per cent, becoming the company’s largest shareholder.

With that move, his divestment of $80 million in property made perfect sense. He had been preparing to bankroll his increased investment in Nine, not retiring.

Thanks to “grandfathering” provisions introduced in 1994 that allowed some of the nation’s largest family-owned companies to hold “exempt proprietary status” — making them exempt from filing financial statements with ASIC — Gordon’s wealth has long been hard to measure. That changed in October 2023 following changes to the Corporations Act in 2022.

The following year WIN lodged its first financials with ASIC.

Gordon’s wealth has been put at $1.3 billion, that’s $350m less than it was in 2010 when BRW put it at $1.65bn preceding his disastrous $200m investment in Channel 10.

Gordon with son Andrew Gordon at WIN headquarters in Wollongong in 2000. Picture: Graham Hely

His wealth comes from his regional media assets, including WIN Television Network, WIN Radio and Crawford Productions, as well as property entities such as Gotham City Properties and Mt Leslie Estates.

For decades he has kept a large estate in Bermuda.

His house there, Wreck Bay, is the former home of music and film impresario Robert Stigwood. Gordon has long listed it as his primary address – this despite recently being increasingly based at Sydney’s swish and convenient Quay Grand apartments where he and Judith bought a $9 million bolthole in 2018.

As befits a one-time magician, many wonder what Gordon’s next trick, concerning Nine, will be.

With his increased shareholding, he’s expected to push for a second seat on Nine’s board, one for his current appointed director, WIN CEO Andrew Lancaster, and a second for daughter Genevieve, 33, who, according to insiders, is the one to watch.

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