Fiji Times has 2 months to sell 90 percent of shares

The Fiji Times newspaper which is 100 percent owned by News Limited has two months from tomorrow to sell 90 percent of its shares to locals, and Fijivillage has received information that a number of local investors have shown interest in acquiring the shares.

September 28th, 2010 is the deadline for the media outlets to only have ten percent foreign shares.

The question now is whether the locals interested in the Fiji Times shares will go ahead with the purchase.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers, who have been appointed by News Limited to assist in valuing the market price of the shares confirmed that they have received a number of expressions of interest and they are working with the interested parties through the process.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers also confirmed that work on valuing the current market price of the 90 percent Fiji Times shares is still underway.

Earlier, an article in The Australian News agency, which is also run by News Limited, had said the Fiji Times shares could be valued at around $176 million Fijian.

The question here again is whether this is the value that News Limited is planning to put on its Fiji business.

Meanwhile, in an interview with The Australian, Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama said there is no room for negotiations and Fiji Times has to be 90 percent locally owned by the deadline to stay operating in Fiji.