Fairfax Media this morning confirmed to the ASX that it had ceased discussions with both TPG Group and Hellman & Friedman after failing to receive a binding offer from either party after a period of due diligence.
The statement said:
“The Fairfax board believes the company has an attractive future and throughout this process has continued to pursue its stand alone business plans including the separation of Domain.”
As to speculation that there might have been some poor recent trading results that scared of the bidders, Fairfax also provided a trading update today, noting “the business continues to perform on track with previous updates provided, with Domain’s digital performance accelerating in the last quarter.”
Fairfax will present its full year report on August 16. However, this morning it reported on revenues December 26 2016 to 25 June 2017 YOY:
Domain up 10%
Metro Media down 12%
Australian Community Media down 11%
New Zealand Media down 4%
Macquarie Media down 5%
Fairfax added full year EBITDA of just over $260m.