SEV

A $4.1 billion dollar merger was approved by shareholders by West Australian Newspapers (ASX:WAN) and Seven Media Group (ASX:SVW) and will now be called Seven West Media. The merger will combine the interests of Seven Media's television, print and Internet business with that of West Australian Newspapers' print business.

The Federal court has now approved the Seven-Westrac deal. Justice Peter Jacobson was satisfied with the merger and gave three reasons for his ruling:

• He noted that "There's nothing to suggest that the unrelated shareholders or the [preference share] TELYS3 holders voted otherwise than in good faith. Or they cast their vote for any improper purpose. The test of reasonableness appears to be satisfied."
• He said the test of "reasonableness" was satisfied

Seven Network (SEV) have voted to approve the Westrac merger (approved by 88.78 per cent of votes cast (57,664,147 shares) and 69.27 per cent of actual holders (1880) in favour - a proposed scrip for scrip of Seven Network and the Westrac Group which is privately owned by Kerry Stokes.

The new entity will be called Seven Group Holdings. Holders of SEV's TELYS3 hybrid securities also voted in favour of the merger at (85.72 percent) for an exchange one for one of TELYS4 securities to be issued by the new company.

Key large shareholders in Seven Network (SEV) have agreed to back the controversial merger between the Australian TV broadcaster and the heavy equipment company, Westrac.

Kerry Stokes, who holds a controling stake int he two companies has agreed to protect Seven shareholders by cancelling part of the share payment to his holding company Australian Capital Equity Pty Ltd (ACE) if Westrac fails to meet its earnings forecast for the 2011 financial year.

Kerry Stokes, the executive chairman of Seven Network (SEV) has launched the mission to hunt new independent directors just before the meeting with the Australian Shareholders Association (ASA) regarding the $3 billion worth of merger. Peter Ritchie, the lead independent director of Seven along with Peter Gammell, the executive director of the company are expected to hold a meeting with the Association today to talk about various points of the proposed deal.

An independent expert has provided positive valuation to the $3 billion worth of Kerry Stokes plan to merge WesTrac and Seven Network (SEV) while the major institutional investors have made it very clear that they are going to conduct their separate research before making up their mind regarding it. It is to be mentioned that Mr.

The executive chairman of Seven Network (SEV) Kerry Stokes is looking forward to achieve further strength in the corporate sector through the $3 billion worth of merger of his mining and media operations. However, Mr. Stokes will be required to convince the market that the merger is going protect the best interest of the investors.

Ryan Stokes, son of Kerry Stokes has survived from being thrown out of the Seven Network (SEV) board due to his father’s dominant position in the company. Kerry Stokes is the executive chairman of the company and is currently holding 92.8 million shares there. Ryan Stokes managed to get re-elected in the board by securing 70 percent of the proxy votes. However, his father’s huge share in the company is the major factor that helped Mr. Stokes to remain in the Seven board. Mr.

Australia based commercial broadcaster Seven Media Group has reduced the value of its television network by $1.5 billion putting the company into a total loss of $1.9 billion in annual accounts which was published on Monday. The alliance of Seven Netwrok and private equity firm KKR dropped to a negative equity of $1.7 billion due to Seven Network’s (SEV) liabilities which outstripped its assets by as much as $1.7 billion.