Following shareholder and regulatory approval, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) divided its gaming and media assets into two companies. Crown and Consolidated Media Holdings (CMH) today started trading on the Australian Stock Exchange and by mid-day were at a small premium to the last price for PBL shares. Shareholders were given one share in each company plus A$3 in cash for each PBL share held.

Some analysts believe that CMH could be a potential takeover target. The company is effectively the first listing of pay-TV assets in Australia. CMH began trading at A$3.70 and rose to A$4.00 before dropping back to A$3.98. Crown started trading at A$14.88 and were at A$14.35 at noon. As PBL Chairman, James Packer was convinced that a pure gaming business and a new media business should result in higher share prices.

Crown owns a diversified portfolio of gaming businesses, including Crown Melbourne and Burswood casinos, a 41.4% stake in Melco PBL Entertainment (Macau) Limited, a 50% interest in the Aspinalls business in the United Kingdom, a 19.6% interest in Fontainebleau Equity Holdings LLC in the United States, and investments in other international gaming businesses. CMH holds investments in a portfolio of media businesses including FOXTEL (25%), Premier Media Group (50%), SEEK (27%) and PBL Media (25%). (E-12.03.07)

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