The new Seven West Media chief executive, James Warburton, is pinning his hopes on entrepreneurial thinking to turn around the ailing media group, saying he will shake up some of the company’s “tired” television shows and look for mergers and acquisitions at the same time as continuing to slash costs.
On Tuesday Warburton, who became CEO five days ago after the sudden and unexplained exit of Tim Worner, repeatedly said all options were on the table to fix the mess at Seven, refusing to rule out going back to shareholders for a cash injection or a merger with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Investors who had been expecting a financial result soaked with red ink were not disappointed, with Seven declaring a loss of almost $445m, down from a profit of $134m the previous year, after it carved $574m from the carrying value of its TV licences and its print outlets, the Pacific magazine group and the West Australian newspaper.
Despite the company’s dismal performance, Worner’s total pay went up from $2.89m to $3.15m, more than $2.5m of which he trousered in cash. And he may still collect an additional $2.5m as a “termination payment” in lieu of the 12 months’ notice required by his employment contract.
But he missed out on a bonus that was worth about $179,000 last year, and about $900,000 worth of stock options lapsed because of Seven’s collapsing share price.
Seven’s chairman and 40% owner, Kerry Stokes, who just two years ago defended Worner’s performance at a time when the chief executive was mired in scandal over the media company’s treatment of an employee with whom he had an affair, did not take part in a question-and-answer session with reporters and analysts on Tuesday.
Warburton, who is under pressure to pay down the company’s $650m debt pile, will receive substantially less than Worner as he strives to fix Seven: $1.35m in cash a year, plus a bonus of up to $2m a year and shares worth up to $4.05m over the next four years.
He pinned his hopes for a revival on TV, where revenue across the industry is in steady decline, on the 2020 Olympics in Japan, which has a time difference of just an hour with Australia, and a shake-up of other programming. “We have some tired formats and we are skewing too old in some areas,” he said.
While pledging to continue an austerity program that last year slashed $38m in costs, he said the company “cannot cost-cut our way to success”.
He said it would be a “hunter” for mergers and acquisitions, and was keen for a partnership with one of the video-on-demand providers.
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Challenged on how Seven could achieve this when it had just $90m in cash and was committed to paying down hundreds of millions in debt, Warburton said the company had “a whole range of options to look at”.
“Whether it’s scrip, whether its other areas of mergers, cost out and operational improvement,” he said. “Ultimately it’s that type of non-thinking or non-entrepreneurial dealmaking that stagnates businesses.
“It’s our job to focus on the business, work out a path and increase the value for shareholders.”
Of the $650m Seven owes the banks, $400m falls due in two years’ time – in November 2021 – said its chief financial officer, Warwick Lynch.
As Warburton pledged to reduce costs, Seven’s annual report revealed that the company had paid the director and former Liberal premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett a total of $365,000 a year, made up of $145,000 for sitting on the board and an additional $220,000 for giving political commentary on air.
