Events. Australia’s Nine Entertainment Company (NEC) is selling many of the events acquired as part of its A$4bn Fairfax Media deal last year. The Ironman Group, of China, is paying A$31m for five sports events including The Sun-Herald City2Surf and The Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon, while the division’s seven business and food events (including the Night Noodle Markets, Good Food Month, The Australian Financial Review Business Summit and Women of Influence Awards) are being retained by NEC. Ironman is a division of Wanda Sports Holdings, of Guangzhou, which also owns Australia’s Hoyts Cinema chain. The group operates 230 sports events in 53 countries, including the Blue Mountains ultra trail race and Noosa Runaway marathon, in Australia.
The deal follows NEC’s A$125m sale last month of the former Fairfax regional newspapers to a consortium led by the former CEO of NEC’s Domain property digital which itself is believed to be of interest to News Corp (owner of the rival REA). But there has been no confirmation of any negotiations about it. NEC is reportedly struggling to sell the former Fairfax operations in New Zealand.
