WA Newspapers Holdings Ltd CEO Ian Law is to join the Packer empire in a role with ACP Magazines, leaving Perth in May after a financially successful four years at the helm of the state’s biggest media company.
WA Newspapers Holdings Ltd CEO Ian Law is to join the Packer empire in a role with ACP Magazines, leaving Perth in May after a financially successful four years at the helm of the state’s biggest media company.
Mr Law joined WA Newspapers in February 2002, taking the helm from Denis Thompson when the company’s share price was around $5.20 per share.
Today shares are trading at about $8.10 after a robust three and half years during which they peaked in January last year at $9.07. This followed the December 14 announcement that WA Newspapers had bought a half share in Hoyts Cinemas from Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd for $173.5 million, in a joint venture with another Packer empire associate, Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd.
PBL owns ACP Magazines, which Mr Law will join as CEO.
Currently overseen by PBL chief executive John Alexander, ACP is the biggest player in Australia’s $2.1 billion national magazine market. Titles in the ACP stable include The Australian Women’s Weekly, Harper’s Bazaar, The Bulletin, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Cosmopolitan and the recently launched monthly, Madison.
While WA Newspapers has outperformed relevant benchmarks, 2005 has not been as kind to the share price.
It slumped down to almost $7 early in 2005, partly on market concerns about the performance of the cinema joint venture, before recovering to current levels.
Mr Law has been touted as a key player in Australian media since leaving Rural Press Ltd to join WA Newspapers.
However, in December last year, WA Newspapers announced a new open-ended contract for Mr Law, ending rumours that he was in the running for a leadership role at Fairfax.
Mr Law said his decision to leave WA Newspapers after four years of service was based on a range of factors, including the opportunity to take on a new senior executive role with PBL, and a desire to be closer to his family in Sydney.
“I have had strong ongoing support from the board and senior management at West Australian Newspapers and I believe the company is well positioned to continue as one of Australia’s leading media companies and to benefit from the continued growth in the WA economy,” he said.
In the ASX announcement Mr Law commented on the two big-ticket items he was managing – a $160 million production upgrade and the half share in Hoyts.
Both, he said, were well managed and performing positively.
“We have also recently appointed a new CEO [South American Delfin Fernandez] of the joint venture company The Hoyts Corporation and we believe the business will make a positive contribution to the earnings of WAN in 2005-06,” Mr Law said.
