Financials of reclusive billionaire Bruce Gordon’s Win Corporation finally surface
The fortunes of billionaire Bruce Gordon’s regional television and radio broadcaster WIN Corporation have finally been made public.
Light has been shone on the until-now private financial affairs of billionaire Bruce Gordon’s regional broadcaster WIN Corporation, revealing that it has not been immune to the headwinds buffeting the sector.
The accounts of WIN, deputy chaired by the 94-year-old, Bermuda-based Mr Gordon, have been grandfathered since the mid-1990s under changes to the Corporations Act at the time.
Since then the company has filed a scant handful of pages subsequent to the close of its financial year, of an “annual notice by grandfathered group’’.
This changed on October 31 this year, when the company dropped a 46-page document to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, indicating that WIN turned over $200.8m for the year ended June 30, 2023, down from $207.3m the previous year.
The company reported a net profit of $8.3m, down 39 per cent on the previous year. WIN did not pay a dividend in the most recent two financial years.
The results are far from the sum total of Mr Gordon’s interest in Australia.
His Birketu investment vehicle reported earlier this year that it had made a net profit of $58.5m in the 2022 financial year, up more than $40m over the previous year’s $18.4m.
Birketu controls the WIN Grand property development at Wollongong, and pulled in just shy of $50m in dividend income in 2022, significantly up on $21.9m the previous year.
Birketu was particularly flush, with its financial documents showing it had $56.5m in cash at the end of FY22, and investment property worth another $59.5m, revalued up from $39.9m.
Birketu also listed $553.9m worth of listed equity securities, down from $907.2m, while WIN held just $1.9m. Mr Gordon and his associated entities are the largest shareholder in Nine Entertainment, with 14.93 per cent, and WIN and Birketu chief executive Andrew Lancaster sits on the Nine board as a non-executive director.
The WIN financial documents lodged with ASIC indicate that it holds Mr Gordon’s regional media assets, such as WIN Radio, Win Television Network and Crawford Productions, as well as property entities such as Gotham City Properties and Mt Leslie Estates.
The financial report does not go into detail about the operations or outlook for the business, but does indicate the company is facing the same headwinds as free-to-air broadcaster Seven Network and the more diversified Nine Entertainment, both of which suffered significant drops in profitability last financial year.
The sum total of WIN’s description of its activities was “the operation of television broadcasting stations, radio broadcasting stations, property developer and investment activities’’.
The company’s revenue was made up of $185.6m in advertising revenue, up marginally on the previous year, $3m in representation revenue, down from $11.5m the previous year, $7m in rental revenue and $4.4m in distribution service revenues.
WIN also invests in “Australian film ventures’’, which it valued on the balance sheet at $13.3m, unchanged from the previous year.
No detail was given as to what these entailed.
It valued its TV and radio licences at $276.4m.
While WIN has not been forthcoming with commentary around its results, they reflect a period of challenge faced by the free-to-air television and radio sectors generally.
Nine Entertainment said at its AGM last week that the business headwinds – exemplified by a 38 per cent drop in profit last year to $194m – had continued into the current financial year.
Chief executive Mike Sneesby said while video on demand was continuing to deliver, metropolitan television and radio markets were tough.
“The metro free-to-air television market … remains challenging, with first quarter revenues down around 12 per cent,’’ Mr Sneesby said. “While September showed some improvement on the rate of decline in July and August, Nine has seen no discernible improvement into the December quarter.
“By contrast, in the September quarter, 9Now’s revenues and the BVOD (broadcaster video on demand) market, continued to grow in the low-mid teens on a percentage basis.’’
In radio, Nine’s first-quarter revenues fell about 3 per cent against the same period last year, “supported by strong growth in digital revenues’’, and an increased contribution from digital streaming.
E&P Financial has Neutral ratings on both Nine and Seven West Media, which also held its annual meeting last week.
Seven, which saw a 31 per cent slump in profit last year, said on Thursday its first-quarter total TV growth was slightly ahead of the market, which was down 8 per cent year on year, with revenue share “the strongest ever non-Olympics quarter.”
However Seven is looking for $25m in cuts this year and another $35m in FY25, on top of $35m in cost-cutting measures announced last financial year.
UBS said in a note to clients the key uncertainty for Seven – which also applies to Nine – was the macroeconomic environment, with advertising markets “showing minimal signs of improvement at this point’’. UBS also gives Seven a neutral rating.
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