Bruce Gordon moves Prime Media shares to Macquarie Bank

Regional broadcasting proprietor Bruce Gordon has cut ties with investment bank Deutsche Bank.

WIN owner Bruce Gordon. Picture: John Feder

Regional broadcasting proprietor Bruce Gordon has cut ties with investment bank Deutsche Bank after a recent bungle with his Prime Media ownership.

Mr Gordon, along with his wife Judith Gordon, private investment vehicle Birketu and WIN Corp have unwound their swap with Deutsche Bank in relation to 29.05 million shares, and have struck a new cash-settled share swap with Macquarie, according to a letter to the ASX on Thursday.

The bank switch doesn’t change Mr Gordon’s stake in Prime, which is being taken over by Kerry Stokes-controlled free-to-air television broadcaster Seven West Media.

The move to Macquarie Bank comes three weeks after the media regulator found that Mr Gordon had breached media laws after a cash swap was not executed properly by a third party, giving Mr Gordon more shares in Prime than he was legally allowed to own.

WIN Group’s 71.494 million Prime shares together with its new Macquarie Bank swap transaction involving 29.05 million Prime shares, Mr Gordon holds a 19.52 per cent stake in the business and voting power of 11.59 per cent.

The transaction with Macquarie holds Prime shares at a price of $0.200 per share.

Earlier this year, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission ordered WIN to reduce its holdings in Prime following a number of transactions which had given him an economic interest in the company without voting rights.

Under the Broadcasting Services Act, a person is deemed to be in control of a media asset when they buy more than 15 per cent of a company, which holds that asset. That is regardless of whether the person can exert actual control over the asset, which is a separate test.

The media regulator later launched an investigation into Mr Gordon’s Prime holdings, later ruling he had breached media regulations. However, the ACMA decided not to punish Mr Gordon, despite his total shareholding in Prime rising to 26.6 per cent. The ACMA ruled the move was an accident.

Seven announced in October that it would buy Prime for $63 million in October. However independent expert Lonergan, Edwards & Associates recently said the deal was “not fair” but “reasonable”.

Regional media owner Antony Catalano has been building his stake in Prime, which now stands at 12.9 per cent.