Latest news with #Grenon
National Business Review
2 days ago
- Business
- National Business Review
Takeovers Panel NZME process a ‘disservice' to NZ, Grenon says
The Takeovers Panel's enquiry into whether certain acquisitions of NZME shares by Jim Grenon were in compliance with the Takeovers Code was 'completely unnecessary and a disservice to New Zealand,' the newly appointed NZME director says. Grenon's appointment to the board of the listed media
Newsroom
3 days ago
- Business
- Newsroom
NZME declares peace, Stuff and TradeMe declare war
The battle to control NZ Herald owner NZME ended on Tuesday with shareholders endorsing a peace deal – just as major rivals Stuff and TradeMe joined forces to form an audacious new competitor. NZME shareholders voted former National cabinet minister Steven Joyce onto its board, replacing outgoing chair Barbara Chapman, and approved corporate raider Jim Grenon as another new face. Incumbent director Sussan Turner won re-election and re-joined two continuing, existing directors. By agreement Joyce will be made chair, and a sixth director, digital commerce expert Bowen Pan will be appointed. The votes ended three months of a power struggle, initiated by Canadian-NZ private equity investor Grenon for what he promised to be better financial results and improved journalism at NZME's New Zealand Herald site and newspaper. Grenon's campaign started by seeking appointment of himself plus three more of his nominees and the removal of all incumbents. But it ends with his sole accession to the board, three incumbents continuing, and Joyce as a peacemaking chair. Chapman and director David Gibson were the fall guys. Grenon is now a 13 percent shareholder but his first push for control has been partly stymied. Curiously, he won the fewest votes for his appointment (86 percent) and most against (14 percent) of the four resolutions put to the meeting. Joyce won the backing of 93 percent of votes cast. The new board members received a sobering trading update from chief executive Michael Boggs at the annual shareholders meeting. Boggs' forecast for the balance of NZME's financial year was subdued, compared with relatively upbeat words as late as a results briefing in February, when he confirmed a 2024 net profit of $12m but overall loss, after write-downs on the value of newspapers, of -$16m. 'Unfortunately, the market remains volatile and economic commentators have softened their outlook from what was expected earlier in the year.' Later, he noted: 'The market is not improving as much as we originally expected – it remains volatile and therefore we are taking a cautious yet optimistic approach.' The business had done better in the first four months this year than last and remained 'well placed' to deliver improved full year results, but he emphasised downturns in the latest business and consumer confidence surveys. He said NZME had made the equivalent of $12m in annualised savings already this year, including $4m saved from a round of 30 redundancies in its editorial departments. Boggs noted a delay expected in a recovery in house prices – 'again, later than predicted' – which could be crucial to forecasts for NZME's OneRoof real estate listings portal. In February, NZME announced a strategic review of OneRoof, possibly seeking investment, a part sale or separation in advance of a market listing. It suggested shareholders would be updated at this annual meeting, but outgoing chair Chapman said an update would now be made at the half-year results in August. The silence on the future of OneRoof spoke particularly loudly on Tuesday because the number one property site in the market, TradeMe, chose that very morning to announce it had bought half of Stuff Digital, the nation's biggest news site. As OneRoof has used its partnership to promote housing and real estate content and link to its homes for sale, TradeMe will now take over Stuff's property section and leverage what is bound to be more real estate content on that site. The deal, which is subject to standard conditions being met, will therefore pit the Herald-One Roof combo against Stuff-TradeMe. The latter partnership starts as number one in each of its component online markets. TradeMe's investment will also be a big boost to Stuff, which while profitable according to owner Sinead Boucher, would have been pressured over the past two years in the same vein as declining print and digital ad revenues suffered by NZME. Stuff also took on the added cost of producing 3News nightly for Warner Bros Discovery following Newshub's demise – a multimillion dollar outlay likely to have sustained reduced initially forecast margins, possibly into the red. The sum paid by TradeMe has not been disclosed and both businesses are private companies. But for Boucher and Stuff a substantial inflow of capital right now will greatly improve prospects for the company she bought from Nine Entertainment five years ago for $1. 'This is the first time since the management buyout of Stuff five years ago that I have accepted an equity partner into the business,' she said. 'It was important to me that we found the right partner at the right time in our growth strategy, protecting our fiercely independent media business which is loved and trusted by millions of New Zealanders.' The Stuff mastheads division, covering its newspapers, subscriber news sites The Post, The Press and Waikato Times, plus the Neighbourly and Events businesses, remain fully owned by Boucher. For NZME, its rivals' marriage will not have been a surprise, having been publicly mooted since at least March. But it will be no less challenging, particularly if the NZME strategic review being conducted by Jarden recommends seeking separation and outside investment. The review's objective of realising OneRoof's 'full potential' just got harder. TradeMe chief executive Anders Skoe said the Stuff deal would enable house vendors and agents 'reach an even wider pool of prospective buyers' and 'generate the highest quality property market insights.' Stuff has an audience of 2.3m unique readers a month, 400,000 higher than in the Nielsen online ratings for April, and One Roof, according to the Herald, trailed TradeMe by, 32,000 – 747,000 to 779,000. While Chapman's final speech as chair saluted OneRoof for going 'from strength to strength, delivering significant year-on-year growth', at least one new board member has not always been so convinced. New NZME board member Jim Grenon. Photo: NZME presentation New director Grenon, in a war of words conducted by letter during his contest for board places, threw doubt on OneRoof's actual success over the past four years, saying it had achieved just 40 percent of its targets. In a letter from March 6, Grenon said OneRoof 'missed the most relevant ebitda margin target by a significant degree' as late as the 2024 financial year. 'OneRoof's 2024 financial performance is a recent example of management over promising and ebitda confusion,' he noted, coming in at just half what he calculated should have been $4.8m in operating profit. He questioned, too, how costs for OneRoof had been allocated in NZME's books. He joins the board now with the main competitors gearing up to push back against OneRoof. The new NZME board is also expected to create an editorial advisory board, with blogger and lawyer Phillip Crump nominated as its first member and possible chair, to help improve the Herald's journalism. Grenon and Crump are both of the centre right, Crump a favoured appointee by the coalition Government to both the NZ on Air board and Waitangi Tribunal.
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Media Insider: NZME shareholder meeting - Steven Joyce set to become chair, Jim Grenon to join board; what to expect at today's meeting
All eyes will then be on the new-look board's first strategic moves, including the future direction of property portal OneRoof; whether the company wants to resurrect talks with Stuff to buy its paywalled websites, including The Post and The Press; and the establishment of an NZME editorial board 'to assist and advise the editorial team'. Joyce will - subject to shareholders confirming him and Grenon as new directors, as expected - take the reins as chair from Barbara Chapman, who will retire at the end of the ASM. NZME owns the NZ Herald, NewstalkZB, BusinessDesk and OneRoof; inset: NZME chair Barbara Chapman and shareholder Jim Grenon. Chapman, a former chief executive of ASB, has been subject to much of the wrath of some agitating shareholders over the past several months. Grenon, who now holds 13% of the company, is today expected to meet, for the first time, the NZME executives who have felt the brunt of his criticisms of the company over the past three months. He has highlighted concerns over the financial performance and operation of the company. 'It is concern about operational aspects of NZME that is driving this change,' he told the Herald in a statement in March. 'The editorial content is very much a side issue, but the quality of the journalism does impact everything else in the business and is also the board's ultimate responsibility. 'The new board intends to improve on the journalism, with an emphasis on factual accuracy, less selling of the writer's opinion and appealing to a wider political spectrum.' Influential major shareholder Roger Colman will also be at the ASM today, from Australia, as will be minor shareholder and former National Party leader Don Brash, from Tauranga. The meeting starts at 2pm. 'Best media board in Australasia' Colman said yesterday the new-look board would be the best media board in Australasia, citing the experience of the likes of Joyce, Horrocks, Turner and Pan. He said it was important to thank Grenon and NZME's biggest shareholder, Australian fund Spheria Asset Management, without whom the board changes would not have happened as quickly. Former National Party Cabinet Minister Steven Joyce. Photo / Nick Reed Now, he is keen to ensure the directors work in unison. 'It is important that these board members' relationship with Jim, and Jim's relationship with existing board members, is up to scratch. 'Everybody's on good behaviour - it's a question of how this is going to work, right?' NZME announced in March that Jarden was undertaking a strategic review of its property platform OneRoof. The media firm, which also owns the NZ Herald, Newstalk ZB, BusinessDesk and a suite of music stations and regional news titles, said it had launched the review to accelerate OneRoof's growth and realise its 'full potential in delivering value for shareholders'. Opportunities included the potential separation of OneRoof 'to enable raising external capital, either public or private, to surface its value'; 'potential pathways to value recognition and monetisation'; consolidation opportunities; and 'additional resourcing and extra capacity opportunities'. 'A progress update on this independent review will be provided as part of NZME's half-year results later in the year.' Editorial board NZME has already announced an editorial board will be established. Lawyer, blogger and former ZB Plus editor Philip Crump, who had originally been touted as one of Grenon's board directors, will be a member of the board. The scope of the board, including exactly how it will operate, and other members, have yet to be announced. Former National Party leader Don Brash. Photo / George Novak Meanwhile, Brash, whose group Hobson's Pledge had an advocacy advertisement turned down by NZME last year, told the Herald on Monday that he was planning to attend today's meeting. 'Whether I ask questions, I guess depends a bit on how the AGM evolves. 'I mean, clearly I'm pleased with the changes which have been announced. I've been subscribing to the Herald for a long, long time, and we were very disappointed - I was very disappointed personally - by the fact that we had some difficulty getting some advocacy ads run in the Herald. 'We thought they were legal and accurate. I'm hopeful that the change will make them more open to running advocacy ads as long as there's no legal problem.' He said he was aware NZME had changed its policy, so that advocacy ads could run in future inside the newspaper, rather than on the front page or 'wrapping' the newspaper. 'The unwillingness to carry ads on the front page always amuses me. You're happy to carry ads for an Australian appliance company day after day.' He said he may well reinforce the point that advocacy ads should be permitted. 'It is important that voices can be heard as long as they are in fact legal. 'We don't want anything obviously illegal or inappropriate but I don't think anything Hobson's Pledge has said or is likely to say will be breaking the law.' Brash said he was intending to book a full-page advocacy ad in the Weekend Herald next Saturday - it was not connected to Hobson's Pledge and would be announced later in the week. A newspaper 'for everybody' Amplifying Brash's comments, Colman said a newspaper had to be 'for everybody'. 'There's a pendulum - it swings left to right at various elections all the time. Sometimes the conservatives are in power, sometimes the progressives are in power. The paper's got to cover all bases.' Roger Colman addresses the NZME shareholders meeting in 2024. Photo / Sylvie Whinray This was especially important, he said, given that NZME still employed a substantial percentage of journalists, especially in the wake of the closure of Newshub and other industry cutbacks. He estimated NZME had doubled its percentage of the overall number of New Zealand journalists as a result of the cutbacks at other newsrooms. In the normal course of events, media wouldn't take a lot of interest in NZME's annual shareholder meeting. However, there is still considerable interest in what unfolds today, and NZME expects to accommodate at least half a dozen reporters as well as cameras at the ASM. Meanwhile, Brash believed Joyce would make a good chair. The pair had worked together when Brash was leader of the National Party, and Joyce was in leadership roles for the party, including as general manager and election campaign director. 'He wasn't at that point in parliament, but he was a very effective executive director of the National Party, and we worked together very well,' said Brash. 'I had left Parliament before he came in [as an MP] in 2008. I left in 2007 so we didn't actually serve in the Parliament together, but my impression is he was a very competent minister.' Brash has bought 1000 shares in NZME. This allows him to attend the ASM. 'As a shareholder, I hope he runs the company well. I'm a very modest shareholder, I don't have any particularly strong views about his chairmanship. I'm sure he will do a good job - he's a very competent guy, and of course, he's been in the media himself prior to going to politics. 'In a sense, the developments that have taken place in the last few weeks may make it less important for me to make a public statement. 'I'm pleased with what's happened, and if I say anything at all, it will be in support of what's happened.' Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand's most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME. Watch Media Insider - The Podcast on YouTube, or listen to it on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Newsroom
20-05-2025
- Business
- Newsroom
NZME agitator wants Herald's ‘political leaning' measured, maybe by AI
Comment: The Canadian-NZ investor who tried but failed to take board control of media firm NZME still believes its New Zealand Herald needs to 'measure its articles for political leaning' and suggests artificial intelligence can help. Jim Grenon, who previously formed the right-leaning Centrist site and newsletter, will likely win just his own seat on the NZME board when shareholders vote in a fortnight, rather than the chair plus three others he had sought. Instead, his board agitation will see former National Cabinet Minister Steven Joyce supported to become a director and take the chair, with three incumbent directors surviving and a new digital expert to be appointed. But Grenon, who outlined his financial and editorial concerns about the Herald in two letters to the board in March and April, is clearly not letting his focus on the paper's journalism fade as he prepares to join that board. In information posted to the NZX website on Friday for shareholders before the meeting he outlines his business background in Canada, acknowledges he might not 'on the surface … have a lot of directly relevant experience that will be helpful for NZME' and then returns to his editorial standards theme. He said his involvement with the Centrist – which platforms fringe and alternative content on climate change, social and gender issues and the Treaty of Waitangi – had exposed him in detail to the Herald's journalism. 'One of the things Centrist does is carefully follow what the other NZ news organisations are doing so I have had a thorough immersion into the journalism produced by NZME,' Grenon tells shareholders. 'I believe it is important for the Herald to be a broad church. To ensure it is on course it needs to be able to measure its articles for political leaning, overall. This is now much easier with AI. The same can be said about measuring the quality of the journalism.' Grenon has been critical of the Herald and Stuff as long ago as during the pandemic, and the Centrist has said publicly that the Herald's journalism problems were among the reasons for the site/newsletter's launch. 'The NZ Herald also seems to sometimes accept, without questioning, what we see as blatantly misleading government narrative. This includes 3 Waters and the IRD high net worth project. The Herald, BusinessDesk and other major media sources in New Zealand, inspired us to launch NE and the Centrist.' The right-tinged Free Speech Union has also publicly declared it first sparked Grenon's interest in NZME by alerting him to its refusals to publish certain political advocacy advertisements. Quite how Grenon would expect the Herald newsroom or the creation of an editorial advisory board that he promoted in his campaign to measure 'political leaning' in its journalism is unclear. What is also unclear is whether he would expect the Herald to make that measurement of leaning public to readers and customers. In the early weeks of his attempt to turn his 9.97 percent holding in NZME into sweeping aside the existing board, taking the chair and appointing his own nominees, Grenon told NZME he would not be a standard chair. 'I do not propose to act as an average, passive board chair. I propose to be very active at the management level, leading a board and team that will delve into the operational details so as to be able to challenge management. Some other board members may also assist with the technical work. This approach to governance is the only realistic way to ensure NZME gets a fresh set of eyes questioning every aspect of operational effectiveness and shareholder value creation.' Steven Joyce is chair in waiting for NZME. Photo: Lynn Grieveson As a lone director he will now need to make that case to his colleagues around the board table. His previous letters to the board – including one advising directors to forget a futile defence against his raid – listed the company's poor financial performance, insufficient transparency, bloated management and staffing costs and a need for better journalism. One letter said Grenon expected NZME staff to get with the programme once he took over: 'We expect to find significant cost reduction in the high-cost employees and executive ranks. It is easy to understand why existing management has been resistant in this area. We also hope to find many in the existing NZME staff that can work and thrive in the new paradigm, which will provide opportunities for some to advance.' Whether he will be permitted by Joyce and the board to be actively involved in changing the executive ranks and spending can only emerge once the shareholders have had their say on June 3. Grenon has lived in New Zealand for 12 years. He still owns and works with TOM Capital, a private equity business based in Calgary, Canada, that has had financial success investing in energy and manufacturing firms. He lists his board experience at various listed firms over 25 years. His most recent note to shareholders says he and his TOM Capital colleagues have been poring over NZME's financial affairs for a year. 'I think it is noteworthy that, many times in the past I have acquired significant investments based only on publicly available knowledge but they have almost always worked very well once I was in a position on the inside. These calculated risks, based on some, but incomplete, knowledge and experience, are part of private equity investing.' A Grenon associate and at one stage nominee for the NZME board, lawyer and blogger Philip Crump, is set to join the new editorial advisory board at NZME, perhaps as chair. Crump worked within NZME for nine months establishing the ZB Plus centre-right website which was abandoned. He became a favourite of the coalition Government, winning appointments to the board of NZ on Air (the broadcasting and digital content funding agency) and the Waitangi Tribunal. Once appointed to the NZME editorial advisory board, Crump's position on NZ on Air's board would have to be under examination for any appearances of conflict of interest. Stuff up again The latest online audience numbers are out, with Stuff again dominant. Stuff's online ad after winning 11 Voyager Media Awards, including best digital platform. The winner for the second year in a row of best digital news platform at the Voyager Media Awards, Stuff has 2.3 million unique readers in the Nielsen online ratings for April. That is a substantial 417,000 ahead of the nzherald site on just under 1.9m, with RNZ on 1.5m and 1News now a distant fourth on 743,000. RNZ's continued strength follows the demise last July of the Newshub website. Nielsen's April release appears more straightforward than its issuing, then retraction, of March figures after concern over errors. Amended March figures now show Stuff (initially listed as having 2.34m unique readers) was actually 2.2m, and nzherald (initially set at 1.82m) was revised up to 1.89m. Using the latest figures for March, Stuff lifted its audience by 126,000 in April and nzherald was up 9000.
Scoop
07-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
NZME / James Grenon
In April 2025, the Takeovers Panel held a meeting under section 32 of the Takeovers Act 1993 to inquire into potential non-compliance with the Takeovers Code by Mr James Grenon when he acquired a total of 1,212,975 NZME shares, representing 0.646% of the voting rights in NZME Limited on 4 March 2025. Today, the Panel released its determination and statement of reasons. In summary, the Panel was satisfied that the acquisitions did not breach rule 6(1)(a) of the Code. The Panel's decision turned on whether, at the time of the acquisitions, Mr Grenon was an associate of Spheria Asset Management Pty Limited, the controller of at least 14.946% of voting rights in NZME, and with Caniwi Capital Partners Limited, the controller of 1.674% of the voting rights. After receiving documentary evidence and hearing oral evidence, the Panel was satisfied that, at the time of the acquisition, Mr Grenon was an associate of Caniwi, but not an associate of Spheria. Accordingly, after the acquisitions, Mr Grenon, together with his associates, did not hold or control more than 20% of the voting rights in NZME. About the Takeovers Panel The Panel is an independent Crown entity established under the Takeovers Act 1993. The Panel's mandate is to strengthen investor confidence in New Zealand's capital markets by enforcing the Takeovers Code. The Code ensures that all shareholders have a fair opportunity to participate in control-change transactions (such as mergers, acquisitions, takeovers and allotments) in Code companies. Further information on the Takeovers Panel is available at
