Australia’s Nine moves closer to sale of property asset Domain to US giant CoStar

Australia’s Nine Entertainment is poised to secure a A$1.4bn (US $88m) financial windfall following CEO Matt Stanton greenlighting the sale of its subsidiary Domain to US property company CoStar.

Matt Stanton

The board of property platform Domain, which is Nine’s largest media asset, today voted in favour of the proposed sale and signing the deed for an exclusive period of due diligence for the CoStar transaction.

Nine Entertainment owns 60% of Domain and its board includes Nine CEO Matt Stanton and Nine Entertainment board directors Peter Tonagh and Mickie Rosen.

Nasdaq listed property giant, CoStar acquired 16.9% of Domain in February and has been courting the media company for a full scale buyout since then, upping it price of A$4.43 a share last week. The new offer now values Domain at A$2.8 billion.

The revised offer could transform the fortunes of the Nine Network as it continues to seek cost cutting measures under an operating model reset implemented this year to help deliver a cost reduction target of A$50m in 2025.

Domain confirmed to CoStar that each of the Domain directors intends to unanimously recommend the sale to Domain shareholders in the absence of a superior proposal. The exclusivity period will expire in four weeks unless extended by a further two weeks by request.

Domain advised that there is no guarantee that a binding agreement will be reached and the board would update shareholders and the market in due course.