Fairfax Hits Record Low

Fairfax Media has suffered a record low, following last Friday’s trading. Its shares dropped 12 percent and traded at 44.5 cents at one point.

Mining mogul Gina Rinehart tried to offload her five-percent stake in Fairfax Media but failed to do so. The offloading was attempted by Rinehart’s broker Morgan Stanley.

Rinehart’s five-percent stake is equivalent to about 117 million shares. Morgan Stanley sought about 50 cents per share but no one bit.

Last Friday was Fairfax’s sixth-biggest trading day. About 56 million shares were bought for 45 cents. Bloomberg also said about 3.3 million shares of multiple parcels were traded after the market closed.

About 13 million shares were traded by UBS while 5.6 million shares were managed by Morgan Stanley. According to media reports, no institutional investor is interested to pay more than 45 cents per share of Fairfax Media.

Industry sources said that the sale appears to be a test of how the market would react and how low shares of Fairfax would go. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, however, refused to give any comment, adding it does not speak about specific companies or operational matters.

Speculations also surfaced, stating that Rinehart does not really intend to sell her shares. Sources said that Rinehart might be waiting for the price to go down so she can buy more shares.

For many months now, Rinehart has been waging a war on Fairfax’s board to give her at least two board seats. She is likely to purchase more shares and make a bid on Fairfax.