TV3 co-owner sells stake in UTV
CanWest Global, which has a 45% stake in TV3, sold its entire 29% holding in UTV yesterday to institutional investors in London, netting around €88 million.
CanWest made a tidy profit on the sale. Since it bought into the Belfast- based UTV in 1997 it has received £20 million in dividends.
The move saw shares in UTV, which have been flat this year, fall by 26p, or 6.2%, to 393p on the London Stock Exchange.
CanWest chief executive Leonard Asper said that the disposal of its UTV stake was part of the company's plans to dispose of non-strategic assets.
"While considered valuable in its own right, CanWest's investment in UTV was no longer considered to be of strategic importance in terms of the company's overall media strategy," he said.
A spokesman for CanWest said the stake in UTV did not call it to have "direct participation in management" of the broadcaster, which also owns Q102 radio in Dublin and Cork's County Media.
However, it is not expected to reduce or dispose of its stake in the loss-making TV3 as it has management control over the station's output.
TV3 chief Rick Hetherington is on secondment from CanWest. It is not known who was behind the purchase and some traders speculated that it could be ITV plc, the British broadcaster.
UTV is one of just a couple of television stations not under the umbrella of ITV, which is the dominant force in commercial broadcasting in Britain, and the other main shareholder in TV3.
Since ITV was formed by the merger of Granada and Carlton Communications there have been rumours of a bid to gobble up the remaining ITV franchise holders.
But UTV has been on the acquisition trail itself, though its attempt to gain control of Scottish Media Group.
However, the bid faltered as the share price of SMG rose too much to justify the purchase.
