Updated ,first published
Two months after sacking the hosts of The Kyle and Jackie O Show, ARN Media’s chief executive and board are to face fired-up investors and the media for the first time at Thursday’s annual general meeting in North Sydney.
Company chair Hamish McLennan is up for re-election, having faced investor calls to step down after handing Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson their $200 million contract and an 87 per cent decline in valuation. Despite this, McLennan is expected to receive shareholder backing and continue as chair.
The company has faced heavy media scrutiny – and duelling legal cases – after handing Sandilands and Henderson the most expensive talent deals in Australian media history, and then tearing them up after a little more than a year.
“If I was Hamish, I’d see the writing on the wall,” one key shareholder told this masthead last month, noting a suite of poor strategic decisions including the $307 million purchase of regional broadcaster Grant Broadcasters just five years ago, a figure that dwarves the entire company’s current valuation several times over.
McLennan, who has faced some scrutiny over his relatively small shareholding in the company despite being its chair, told investors at the AGM he will invest $500,000 into ARN.
“I will be making this investment in my personal capacity as a demonstration of my confidence in the company’s strategy,” he said. Two days ago, this masthead reported McLennan is selling his Sydney home for $36 million.
During his address, McLennan reinforced ARN’s position that Henderson has told the company she could no longer work with Sandilands and therefore backed out of her contract to deliver The Kyle & Jackie O Show.
He said she had told ARN: “direct contact with Mr Sandilands [was] now untenable.”
McLennan said that ARN was confident in its litigation strategy. “I would like to assure shareholders that the board is committed to defending these claims and actively pursuing the cross-claims,” he said.
While two key proxy advisory firms backed McLennan’s reelection, one, CGI Glass Lewis, argued new CEO Michael Stephenson’s fixed $1.1 million contract is too much, based on the fact it is well above the median $812,000 paid to ASX250-300 companies, and ARN is not even on that list.
“This approach is notable in the context of the Company’s declining market capitalisation, which reduced from approximately $578 million at end of FY2021, to around $300 million over the following two years, and further to $124 million at FY2025 year-end and approximately $74 million as at 17 April 2026,” the report said.
ARN has defended Stephenson’s pay packet based on his responsibilities and talent.
The AGM is the first for Michael Stephenson, who initially joined ARN as its chief operating officer. He was previously chief sales officer at Nine (the owner of this masthead) for a decade.
This week, Sandilands and Henderson filed their defences in countersuits lodged against the duo by ARN. Sandilands’ legal team allege KIIS FM and ARN cashed in on he and Henderson’s on-air feuds, even going to lengths to promote them, a feature of the show’s daily soap opera drama.
“[ARN] publicly exploited and thereby sought to monetise the conduct,” Sandilands’ lawyers said in the documents.
“[They did this] without directing or requesting Mr Sandilands or Ms Henderson, not to engage in conduct of that kind.”
Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X or email.
