Shareholders at Ten Network Holdings must be wondering what more can go wrong at the struggling broadcaster given the need to raise fresh funds for the second time in six months.
The television network requested its shares be placed in a trading halt on Wednesday ahead of an announcement of a capital raising and other initiatives.
The planned capital raising comes as Ten prepares to hold its annual general meeting in Sydney on Thursday, where chief executive James Warburton and chairman Lachlan Murdoch will face shareholders looking for answers about how they were going to turn things around.
The Australian Shareholders’ Association (ASA) is questioning whether Ten management’s strategy is working.
“Costs may be down, but so are the ratings,” the ASA said in its published voting intentions.
“At the end of the day controlling costs may be important but without the ratings you don’t have anything.”
Ten shares have fallen 61 per cent so far in calendar 2012, compared with a 50 per cent decline at Seven West Media and 34 per cent fall at Fairfax Media.
Ten is reportedly seeking $225 million through issuing 1.125 billion new shares at 20 cents per share, a steep 38 per cent discount to Monday’s closing price of 32.5 cents.
The planned capital raising would be the second time Ten had tapped the market for funding after it raised $225 million in June.
It would also come after Ten sold its outdoor advertising business EyeCorp for $113 million.
Ten said after both transactions proceeds would be used to pay down debt, strengthen the balance sheet and provide additional refinancing flexibility, with a $US125 million debt facility due to mature in March 2013.
Ten also cut 100 newsroom jobs in November to reduce costs.
Fat Prophets senior analyst Greg Fraser said the sale of EyeCorp was meant to have eased the pressure for a further capital raising.
However, the mooted raising announced on Wednesday suggested the network was continuing to struggle.
“The $225 million that they came up with in June hasn’t really done anything to stem the loss of confidence in the network,” Mr Fraser said on Wednesday.
“They have had to cut a lot of people and content, but they haven’t been able to find anything yet that will gel with audiences.”
Ten slumped to a $12.9 million full year loss in fiscal 2012, with revenue tumbling 13.7 per cent as advertisers deserted the network in response to a number of television flops such as I Will Survive, Being Lara Bingle and The Shire.
Figures from advertising measurement company SMI showed Ten had just 21 per cent of the total metropolitan television advertising market in October, a long way from its 30 per cent target and well behind Nine and Seven.
A declining audience has also put Ten in a difficult position heading into the annual negotiations with advertisers, with reports saying the network was lowering its advertising rates by up to 15 per cent.
