Seven West Media’s aspirations could involve online real estate

Channel 7’s Docklands building in Melbourne. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Seven West Media’s signal towards mergers and acquisitions involving non-media opportunities on Tuesday had some pointing towards a deal in the online real estate space.

The Kerry Stokes-chaired free-to-air broadcaster could have aspirations towards replicating News Corp, publisher of The Australian, which owns a major stake in the realestate.com.au owner REA Group or Nine Entertainment, the majority owner of Domain Group.

Seven West is now cashed up and positioned to grow under the leadership of James Warburton, after selling off non-core assets and paying down debt.

The company has net debt at $256m and its net profit for the 2022 financial year was up 60 per cent to $201m compared with the previous corresponding period, placing it in the strongest financial position in a decade.

Seven West said in its result that it wanted to explore traditional and non-traditional adjacencies. Its digital earnings are now more than 40 per cent of its earnings and its ventures portfolio is valued at $60m.

The company is talking this up at a time that investors gravitate towards media companies transitioning towards digital.

No doubt, one group pitching to Seven West about opportunities will be the business interests of Antony Catalano, the founder of Domain Group.

As well as the publishing business Australian Community Media, Mr Catalano owns IMP, a real estate venture with realestateview.com.au.

Mr Catalano is keep his options open for a listing of IMP into the shell company of Prime Media.