Southern Cross in trading halt to review COVID-19 hit

Southern Cross Media has been placed in a trading halt at the request of the television and radio broadcaster.

Southern Cross Media has been placed in a trading halt at the request of the television and radio broadcaster, which owns Triple M and Hit Networks, as management assess the fallout from the coronavirus.

The company, which swung to a net loss of $120.3m for the six months to December, said the trading halt was necessary to enable it to "assess the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on its business", plus its actions to mitigate the impact.

Southern Cross shares had dropped nearly 33 per cent, or 8c, to 16.5c before the trading halt was announced at lunch time on Monday, giving it a market capitalisation of $188.4m. The trading halt will remain in place until Wednesay or when an announcement is released to the market.

Southern Cross is the second company within the Australian media industry to request a trading halt as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Outdoor advertising group oOh!media requested a trading halt last Friday to allow management to explore a possible capital raising. Departing chief executive Brendan Cook has denied the group had liquidity issues, even though it had net debt of $354.5m at the end of December. He also rejected market speculation that it was in talks with potential buyers.

Several other companies within the sector, including Nine Entertainment, REA Group and Prime Media last week abandoned their annual earnings guidance, citing the market uncertainty because of COVID-19.

Southern Cross last month said the separation of regional units into audio and TV had resulted in a one-off non-cash impairment of $226.9m, which pushed it into the red.

Excluding significant items, interim underlying earnings rose 6.1 per cent to $82.9m, with revenue up 0.2 per cent to $335.7m.