Seven West Media gets shareholder greenlight to merge with Southern Cross Media

The A$385 million (US$255.6m) merger between Seven West Media (SWM), the owner of the Seven television network, and Southern Cross Media Group has been approved by SWM shareholders.

Kerry Stokes

At the company’s final shareholder meeting today in Sydney, 99.4% of shares cast supported the media merger which will come into effect on January 7, following New South Wales Supreme Court approval hearing on Tuesday. All other significant merger approvals have been satisfied.

Seven chairman and founder of the SWM group Kerry Stokes will step down as chairman on February 26 and be replaced by Southern Cross chairman Heith Mackay-Cruise.

Addressing shareholders Stokes said: “It is a pivotal moment. The combination of these two great companies will bring together the best content creators in the country and deliver significant financial and strategic benefits. This is an opportunity to create a national, diversified media organisation with extensive scale and reach across free-to-air television, streaming, audio, digital and publishing assets. This is a seamless combination of high-value brands.”

The new media entity is forecast to have annual revenue of A$1.96bn and will own a national free-to-air TV network Seven and affiliate channels 7two, 7mate, 7flix, 7bravo in addition to VoD service, 7plus, 104 radio stations, a national online newspaper and newspapers across Western Australia.

It is expected that SWM shares will be suspended from trading on the Australian Stock Exchange from close of trading on 24 December 2025. The new entity has yet to be re-branded but until, then the business will be called Southern Cross Media and trade on the stock exchange under SXL.