Johannesburg - Primedia, the diversified media group, hoped to conclude the proposed merger deal with Kagiso Media by the end of March, William Kirsh, its chief executive, said yesterday.
But this is excluding the hearing with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, which needs to approve the cross-media shareholding aspect of the deal, alongside competition authorities.
The major regulatory hurdle would be the merged group's control of three FM radio stations against the allowed two: Kagiso's Jacaranda FM and Primedia's talk radio 702 and East Coast radio.
Active Value Fund, the UK-based active investor that faces a 10 percent dilution of its Primedia equity to 23 percent, was the only shareholder to oppose the deal at the group's annual general meeting held in December.
"The overwhelming majority of the shareholders was saying that they back what we're doing in taking the company forward," Kirsh said.
After this deal the joint black empowerment control, held through companies such as the Mineworkers Investment Company and Kagiso Trust Investment, would be over 40 percent.
Kagiso Media's annual general meeting would take place next month and was expected to give the board the go-ahead for the merger.
Primedia recently reduced its interests in the Primedia Music division to about 25 percent, in line with the group strategy of limiting exposure and curtailing further financial commitments to underperforming assets and unlocking shareholder value.
Meanwhile, the Primedia Broadcasting division was engaged in a cost-cutting exercise across all its radio units.
Keith Giemre, the company's executive chairman, said yesterday he had given all the managements of radio stations 702, 94,7 Highveld Stereo and 567 Cape Talk specific savings target.
"We always review our cost structure as an exercise of achieving tight cost containment every year," Giemre said.
Radio 702, for instance, is believed to be aiming for a R5 million saving from its current spend.
However, Giemre said the figure was less than R5 million, and it was not yet a final one as it was only a first draft strategy for the year starting in July.
The division posted a slight 3 percent decline in operating profit in the year to June 30 2000 from R65,9 million to R63,9 million.
Primedia stock closed unchanged at R6 yesterday.