Murdoch Disposes Of $11m Shares In Wealth Reshuffle

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday February 13, 2008

Miriam Steffens

RUPERT MURDOCH continued to reshuffle his family's shareholdings in News Corp, revealing yesterday he offloaded close to $US10 million ($11 million) worth of shares last week.

Mr Murdoch sold 500,000 non-voting News Corp shares for an average $US19.91 per share on Thursday, on top of about $US31 million he has raised in several sales over the past months. Since September, his private trust has almost halved its holdings to about 2 million non-voting shares.

However, the trades will not weaken Mr Murdoch's grip on the global media empire, cemented through the family's 38.6 per cent voting stake in News Corp.

The latest deal was carried out in New York while the media tycoon was on a visit in Australia, meeting company executives in Sydney before travelling on to Melbourne to join the celebrations of his mother's 99th birthday. A spokesman for News declined to comment on the share sale yesterday.

It is small fry for the mogul, whose personal wealth is estimated at $US9 billion, but it has fuelled questions what may be behind the recent share dealings and where the money is going.

The 76-year-old patriarch started transferring part of his fortune to his offspring last year, giving each of his six children $US100 million worth of non-voting stock in late January 2007.

The move came after he resolved a family dispute over whether his two daughters from his marriage with Wendi Deng should be treated equally with their adult siblings from his first and second marriages.

Last November, Mr Murdoch gave his children $US354 million, selling 17.5 million shares held in the Murdoch Family Trust.

They seem busy investing the money. Elisabeth Murdoch is reportedly close to finalising a deal to buy Reveille, the Los Angeles-based producer of Ugly Betty, to expand her British film production company Shine.

His eldest son, Lachlan, surprised media watchers last month with a $3.3 billion proposal to privatise Consolidated Media Holdings through a joint venture with James Packer.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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