More moves to slow Ten sale
A court has heard there is no big rush for Ten Network creditors to sell the ailing station.
Media barons Bruce Gordon and Lachlan Murdoch are, through their respective investment vehicles, trying to buy Ten and stop administrators KordaMentha selling it to US TV giant CBS.
KordaMentha had earlier laid out the reasons it favoured the CBS bid.
Lawyers for Mr Gordon told a court last week that a deed of company arrangement (DOCA) with CBS does not expire until December 15 this year.
They argued that this allows creditors enough time to consider an alternative bid from Mr Gordon and Mr Murdoch.
Ten creditors will be asked by KordaMentha at a meeting on September 19 to vote for the CBS deal.
Mr Gordon’s lawyer sought to derail the scheduled creditor meeting so that his own joint proposal can be considered.
“No evidence has been put in relation to any particular urgency regarding the DOCA with CBS,” lawyer Dr Andrew Bell SC said.
“Creditors are being asked to do something very significant in terms of their economic self-interest and should be properly informed.”
But the court has now ruled the meeting can proceed as planned.
“It will be a matter for creditors at that meeting to determine whether [it] should be adjourned by reason of ... any recent commercial developments, or for any other reason,” Justice Ashley Black said in his judgment.
By “recent commercial developments”, he meant a revised Gordon-Murdoch offer submitted after the Senate voted to pass media law reforms.