The departure of Nine chairman Peter Costello earlier this week after he was accused of shoving The Australian’s Liam Mendes in Canberra Airport came as somewhat of an inevitability, with his own mastheads turning on him in unison. The outrage of the Nine papers, as well as its radio and television assets, howled until Costello departed late on Sunday night.
Now, attention has turned to what Costello left behind at the company — including its largest shareholder, Bruce Gordon.
Gordon, the billionaire owner of WIN Corporation, last week announced he had again increased his interest in Nine to more than 25%, now comprising 14.95% in voting shares as well as 10.15% in cash-settled equity derivatives through Macquarie Bank. If not for WIN’s interests in an affiliate arrangement with Network 10 in northern NSW, Gordon could potentially own significantly more of Nine Entertainment (which also has interests in an affiliate arrangement with Southern Cross Media) — he is otherwise restricted by media ownership and concentration laws that prevent ownership of more than one commercial television licence in a specific area.
In 2010, Gordon appointed his then 19-year-old daughter to the WIN board of directors, serving alongside his son Andrew who was also appointed to the board at a similar age. Gordon served as the chair of NRL team the St George Illawarra Dragons, in which WIN holds a 50% stake, before relinquishing his board position for Genevieve.
Gordon has continued to build up his equity stake in Nine over a number of years, even predating the 2018 merger between Nine Entertainment Co and Fairfax Media.
The former magician, who transitioned away from a life of pantomime in 1952 when he was hired as a publicity manager for the Tivoli Circuit, now resides in Bermuda, with homes in Monaco and Sydney. He currently sits at 150th on the AFR Rich List, a drop from 133rd last year despite having sold off the site for a proposed $500 million Wollongong development for $70 million earlier this year.
His representative, Andrew Lancaster, is set to become one of the biggest players on the Nine board, which also includes embattled CEO Mike Sneesby. While Gordon moved to increase his stake in Nine prior to the Costello departure, it came as Nine fell out of the ASX’s top 100 stocks this week.
The Australian’s Bridget Carter speculated this week that the WIN group could be entirely folded into Nine as a cost-cutting measure, with the company having made significant investments in the Olympic Games, subscription-based streaming, and having taken body blows with the recent loss of Meta news publishing funding.
The company’s share price has fallen 31% over the past year, and it reported a 40% drop in net profits in its most recent half-yearly results — it recently refused to deny rumours of imminent redundancies across its broadcast division.
