Seven West Media is understood to be in talks to sell the headquarters of its West Australian and Sunday Times head office to Prime West for $74.5m.
As reported on The Australian, the deal would provide the broadcaster, owned by billionaire Kerry Stokes (pictured), with some sort of financial relief as it looks to cut down its significant debt pile, which is around AU$569.5m.
Perth-based property indicator Prime West is reportedly looking to purchase the property, which is just over two hectares of land sitting outside Perth’s CBD.
Meanwhile, it is also be reported that investment bankers are increasing their efforts to find a party to recapitalise SWM.
It is understood SWM has brought in Grant Samuel to help restructure its debt modeling, while also in talks with its banks.
According to reports, eight banks are understood to exist in the syndicate, including Australia’s four major banks, two Chinese lenders, and one from Singapore and one from Japan.
Some reports suggest Seven’s investors may offload their debt to other parties with existing lenders potentially wary about calling in the loans and taking control of SWM.
It is possible then that the new debt owners would either call in Seven’s loans or destructure the group in a debt-for-equity swap.
The news follows Seven West Media’s latest TV revenue figures, which saw a decline of almost 20 per cent.
SWM made $186.6 million in ad revenue for the first three months of the calendar year. Revenue for the same time last year was $228.5 million.
