GMA7 owners eye sale of controlling stake in 2017

The three major shareholders of television broadcast giant GMA Network Inc. are willing to place their combined controlling stake on the auction block in 2017.

The potential transaction, following several failed deals to sell minority ownership over the past decade, would now involve roughly 79 percent of GMA held by the Gozon, Duavit and Jimenez families, GMA chair and CEO Felipe Gozon told reporters late Thursday.

Gozon, who at 77 called himself the oldest among the three family patriarchs, said he was open to engaging with interested investors again next year.

“Matanda na kami (We’re old),” Gozon said, when asked about their openness to exiting GMA, which mainly competes with ABS-CBN Corp. for television ratings.

Menardo “Butch” Jimenez Jr., son of Menardo Jimenez, confirmed to the Inquirer his family was willing to sell. A representative of the Duavit family could not be reached for comment.

Gozon said they hoped to establish this year some basis for the company’s potential price ahead of the sale.

GMA is poised to report a record profit in 2016 following the election advertising boost ahead of the May 9 polls. Gozon said net income as of Dec. 15 this year was P3.5 billion—a figure already 64-percent better than full-year 2015.

GMA has a market capitalization of P20.7 billion, which would value the three families’ combined holdings at about P16.3 billion. But Gozon said market value would not be the basis for the transaction since a controlling position was up for grabs.

“You either want the company or you don’t. If you do, you have to pay the price,” said Gozon, who typically takes the lead in negotiating with new investors.

While clarifying there were no formal talks with any party yet, he said the winning bidder would be the group with the deepest pocket.

“No. 1 [consideration] is the price. That is the most important criterion,” he said.

In previous years, GMA’s owners have held talks with PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom on a possible investment, but a final deal never materialized.

Businessman Ramon Ang, president of San Miguel Corp., came close to buying a 30-percent stake in the company in 2015, but those negotiations, which included a P1-billion downpayment by Ang, ended in litigation and an eventual amicable settlement.