This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THAT’s show business, PBL Media has withdrawn the $200 million sale of the Nine Network sites in Sydney and Melbourne after awarding it to a Charter Hall led consortium.
Disappointed Charter Hall and joint ventures partner R Corporate and Crane Corp were sold very late yesterday that the deal was off, following several months of negotiations.
The joint venture partners were first awarded the exclusive rights to negotiate the purchase of the Nine Network sites in Willoughby (TCN 9) and Richmond (GTV 9).
Charter Hall was unable to provide an explanation behind PBL Media’s decision and Australian Property Journal contacted PBL Media but the company declined to comment.
It has been speculated that the Nine Network which currently occupies both properties has been unable to find suitable alternative premises for relocation.
Charter Hall’s joint managing director David Southon said the joint venture partners were disappointed particularly as the parties were nearing completion of the process.
“The agreed transactions were fully funded via a combination of equity and credit approved debt facilities.
“All parties had worked diligently and cooperatively, in every aspect of the process, to satisfy PBL Media’s intention to dispose of these properties by June 30 2008,” Southon added.
“Whilst we are disappointed with PBL Media’s decision to withdraw the properties from the market, we are confident of identifying and securing other compelling opportunities in the current market to continue to deliver excellent returns to our investors in our series of opportunity funds.
“We have enjoyed working closely with both R.Corporation and Crane Corp on the Channel 9 transaction and believe that there will be other exciting opportunities that the groups will be able to work together on in the near future,” he concluded.
Australian Property Journal
