Kerry Stokes came out of the shadows yesterday to confirm he was behind a massive buying spree in Consolidated Media Holdings shares, as James Packer shored up his grip on the company.
The declaration made to the Australian Stock Exchange sparked speculation Mr Stokes might try to ultimately wrest control of ConsMedia from Mr Packer, who is a board director.
But the Perth-based billionaire would be in for a tough fight, as was signalled by the more wealthy Mr Packer yesterday.
The Stokes-led Seven Network has raided ConsMedia over the past three days to build up an 18.32 per cent stake through its subsidiary Network Investment.
It spent $234.24 million buying 92.91 million ConsMedia shares in five tranches to lift its interest from 4.8 per cent. It now has 126.31million shares in total.
The raid sparked activity at the Packer family's main investment vehicle, Consolidated Press Holdings, which in reply bought 9.68million ConsMedia shares for $24.76million to increase its interest to 39.3 per cent, from 37.9 per cent.
For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times
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