Backlash at News Corp over listing switch (poor Rupert)

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=511243

A rebellion of News Corp's Australian shareholders looked possible after it emerged yesterday that the planned move of the company's primary listing from that country to the US may remove it from a key Australian stock market index.

Australian fund managers feared that if News Corp was dropped from the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index, some shareholders would be forced to sell the shares as it no longer met their investment criteria.

Others said that, even if it remained in the index, changing the listing in Australia from a primary to a secondary quotation, would dramatically reduce the liquidity and weighting of News Corp shares traded in the country. The company currently has the largest weighting, at more than 7 per cent, in the benchmark Australian index.

The investor concerns could wreck Rupert Murdoch's grand plan to move the official corporate home and primary listing of his News Corp empire from his native Australia to the US, where most of the company's operations are now based. For the deal to be approved, it needs support from owners of 75 per cent of the shares voted and 50 per cent of the shareholders voting for each class of shares.

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