The HT&E Ltd (ASX: HT1) share price finished flat at $1.85 today — the same price as it closed on Monday.
However, it spent much of Tuesday in the red until an update from the media and entertainment company this afternoon saw a late rally.
Here are the details.
What was announced?
HT&E advised it disposed of its entire equity stake and shareholding in out-of-home advertising company oOh!Media Limited (ASX: OML) today.
The company disposed of the shares for $1.78 each, thereby obtaining gross proceeds of $49 million.
HT&E had originally acquired its 4.2% stake in oOh!Media in April 2020, as an "equity investment in a sector and assets it is very familiar with".
The disposal of the shares realised a gain of $31 million on its original investment of approximately $15 million to $18 million at the time. However, it has done little to fire up the HT&E share price.
The $49 million is a welcome accretion to HT&E's balance sheet after it recently resolved an ongoing tax dispute with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
Here the ATO was chasing answers and payment on a total of $195 million in reference to one of HT&E's New Zealand branches. The company reached the resolution on a sum of $71 million – far lower than most expected – being in the best interests of shareholders.
The better-than-expected result saw the HT&E share price soar by more than 30% on the day. It also had leading brokers smiling, as the majority of analysts had baked in a far greater penalty toward the company.
Leading broker Jefferies reckoned the company would foot a $90 million bill from the dispute and was subsequently surprised at the outcome.
It consequently raised its price target on the HT&E share price by around 9% to $2.50 per share, implying an upside potential of 38% at the time of writing.
Today, the HT&E share price was struggling around $1.80 at the time of announcement — down around 2.7% on the day — before bouncing back to its closing price of $1.85.
HT&E share price snapshot
The HT&E share price is currently exactly where it started the year, at $1.85. However, shares in the media company have rallied 17% in the last month and around 20% this past week.
In the last 12 months, HT&E shares have climbed more than 27%, a smidge ahead of the S&P/AX 200 index (ASX: XJO)'s return of 23% in that time.
