Investor Presentaiton
Investment research analysts do not see strategic merit for the recombination of Fox & News Corp
"...the history of separating, and later recombining assets highlights that the company remains a family business, and not necessarily run for the benefit of
public shareholders... Over the long term, the challenge for NWSA holders would be the same as it is currently, namely complexity. News Corp
management has done a good job in recent years of increasing disclosure and focusing investors heavily around Dow Jones, HarperCollins, and Realtor,
while improving the financial performance of legacy segments (News, Australia television/streaming). A tie up with Fox recomplicates what had been
emerging as a cleaner story."
J.P.Morgan
-JP Morgan (18 October 2022)
"We believe neither HarperCollins publishing nor News Corp's digital real estate assets have an obvious corresponding partner at the Fox business.
We believe that a lack of upfront strategic asset alignment detail has been detrimental to investor perception and market valuation in the combinations of
CBS/Viacom and Discovery/Warner Bros. It is not clear that operational flexibility would be enhanced by combining the companies, in our
view...Similarly, we believe the areas that do have apparent strategic alignment, most specifically the news-gathering and reporting assets, do not
have obvious activities or responsibilities that can be consolidated or jointly pursued...We see reducing the conglomerate discount as the most
significant hurdle to the success of a re-combination."
GUGGENHEIM
- Guggenheim (17 October 2022)
"...as we have written in the past, the main opportunity we see for NWSA shareholder value un-lock (i.e. a reduction in SOTP discount) would come as a
result of further simplification of NWSA's asset portfolio (e.g. REA and FOXTEL investments)...and we think the most upside for existing NWSA
shareholders likely comes if such asset sales/spins are executed by NWSA itself, before any potential merger with FOXA is undertaken... News Corp
currently trades at a ~50% discount to our SOTP. It has averaged a ~20% discount since its de-merger to become a separate company in 2013. Our view
is further meaningful asset sales/spins-offs, subject to attractive valuation/terms of course, will simplify the NWSA story and thereafter reduce the SOTP
discount."
- Morgan Stanley (17 October 2022)
Morgan Stanley
"Combining Fox with News Corp's assortment of assets likely won't lead to any reset [in] valuation and will even more likely complicate the narrative
for investors. In fact, both stocks have traded at discounts to net asset value, which seems to suggest that a bigger combination of assets would unlikely
reverse this situation... So, we question the decision to announce a potential combination of Fox and News Corp now? And probably even more
importantly, where do we go from here?"
M
MOFFETTNATHANSON
☐N
A DIVISION OF SVB SECURITIES LLC
IRENIC
- MoffettNathanson (16 October 2022)
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