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, following 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.
While WA Newspapers has outperformed relevant benmarks, 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 key player in Australian media since leaving Rural Press Ltd to join WA Newspapers.
However, in December last year, WA Newspapers announced an new open-ended contract for Mr Law ending rumours that he was in the running for leadership role at Fairfax.
Below is the full statement from the WAN website:
STATEMENT TO ASX
The board of West Australian Newspapers Holdings Limited today announced the resignation of its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ian Law, who has accepted a position as Chief Executive Officer of Australian Consolidated Press Limited (ACP Magazines).
The resignation of Mr Law, who joined the company in February 2002, will take effect in May 2006, or earlier by mutual agreement.
Announcing Mr Law's resignation, the Chairman of West Australian Newspapers Holdings Limited, Warwick Kent A.O., said "Ian Law has made a very significant contribution to the success of the company and we are sorry to be losing him. We wish him every success in his new role." Mr Kent also said that an executive search consultant had been engaged to assist in finding Mr. Law's replacement.
Mr Law said his decision to leave WANH after four years of service was based on a range of factors including the opportunity to take on a new senior executive role with Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, 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."
"The circulation and readership of The West Australian is strong, and our other newspapers and radio stations are doing well. We are also well advanced in the process of a complete upgrade of the company's production capacity. This upgrade will add to the quality of our product and will deliver significant operational savings with the reduction of 220 FTE positions in the production area. We now have formal expressions of interest from staff for the redundancies being sought."
"We have also recently appointed a new Chief Executive Officer 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.
Ends......
28 November 2005
