Mediaboss Marketing

Video will begin in 5 seconds.

APN News and Media Limited (ASX:APN) is considering options with its New Zealand arm of the business, including an initial public shares offering and listing of the company on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

APN News and Media is considering whether to spin-off its New Zealand assets as the group assesses strategic options to help battle a volatile advertising market.

APN chief executive Michael Miller told BusinessDaythat all options were being considered for the New Zealand assets as one entity, rather than breaking them into different parts.

The New Zealand arm of APN could be valued between $500 million and $540 million, CCZ Equities media analyst Roger Colman said.

APN's New Zealand assets include The New Zealand Herald, regional newspapers, The Radio Network and GrabOne - a group buying website. Photo: Robert Rough

"The radio business is a solid business, the newspapers are not, that's pretty obvious, but the New Zealand Herald is an iconic newspaper," Mr Colman said.

Advertisement

Among the options are listing on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, retaining 100 per cent of the business, or selling the whole New Zealand arm.

"While we're not actively seeking trade sales at the moment, we would consider any trade sale approaches for the whole business which we may receive out of this process," Mr Miller said. "We're not actively looking and we've got nothing we're considering today."

Read more from the original source:
APN News and Media considers Kiwi spin-off