SEN CEO Craig Hutchison claims company’s stock price is ‘unbelievably great value’

Former Editor & Content Director

Sports Entertainment Network’s (SEN) CEO Craig Hutchison says the company’s relatively stagnant stock price – currents 26 cents – is “unbelievably great value” given how much the company has scaled in recent years.

Hutchison’s Crocmedia announced plans to merge with ASX-listed Pacific Star Network in 2017 and then confirmed its plans in 2018. The $23.9 million stock-only deal saw Hutchison become CEO of the merged entity with a 24.4% stake.

Since then, the ASX entity has been rebranded as Sports Entertainment Group, while the consumer-facing name is Sports Entertainment Network.

The company has also been on an aggressive acquisition path, acquiring multiple radio licences, expanding into New Zealand as well as Tasmania, and purchasing NBL team the Perth Wildcats.

Despite all this, the share price continues to hover around 26 cents.

“For anyone listening out there, you can have a look at our stock. We’re unbelievably great value at 25 or 26 cents today,” Hutchison told the Dyl & Friends podcast last week. “That’s the same price we were at the same time we went in, and yet we’ve done so much and scaled so much. So, from a public markets perspective, I think we’re an incredible opportunity… I think we’re an unbelievably solid business now, well positioned for a long run at things in the future.”

Hutchison said there’s a lot of room for growth with the business’ radio assets, particularly Sydney’s 1170, which could be “bigger, bolder and more socially relevant”.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do… We’ve got so many radio licenses we haven’t yet really grown into. There’s a lot of blue sky in our radio business, there’s a lot of blue sky in our television business, our event business is growing, our TV business I mentioned is growing, our talent business is growing, our recent acquisition of the Wildcasts has got a lot of work to do. So I feel like the next three to six months are about harvest and trying to consolidate and try to focus on those new areas – and then we’ll look at what’s next,” he said.

Hutchison said his addiction to running and growing the business is a “healthy” one, although not everyone would agree.

“There’s worse addictions to have than being addicted to your business,” he told podcast host Dylan Buckley. “Most addictions are negative. Some people would say I’m a little too addicted to the detail in our business. But it means something every day. It’s a privilege but not a right to be in a business like ours where you can produce content every day, you can entertain people, or you can drive scale into your clients and you can help solve their problems from a marketing sense. That’s a privilege, not a right.”

The ever-changing media landscape means he can’t take his eye off the game for a minute, he said, noting it’s addictive because it needs to be.

“It’s a seven day a week business. It’s not easy. It’s not plausible to have your day off even if you wanted to… It’s great. There’s days where you love it more than others, but it’s a great privilege.”

Later in the podcast he said he’s not craving switching off.

“It’s all fun,” he added. “You wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun. The word you used before was addictive, and I think you’re right. It’s a, hopefully a healthy addiction, but we do want to be relevant in every town we do business in. So I’m as interested in Wellington as I am in Kalgoorlie and everything in between.”

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Former Shareholder
26 Oct 2021 - 1:34 pm

The share price has stayed the same due to issuing more shares. Prior to the acquisition, the market cap was around $11 million and now its $58 million. The company has definitely grown in value, but the shares haven’t due to the number of extra shares created.

Josh
26 Oct 2021 - 2:38 pm

The only person actively hyping up the product of the SEN brand is Craig Hutchison.

You’d think if the network was actually any better, the share price would have got better, not stayed the same?

What do they actually intend on doing with this network?

Brad
26 Oct 2021 - 4:06 pm

The balance sheet is supported by a massive goodwill figure of $59M. There is no guarantee it is worth anything like that in a sale situation.

Appalled
26 Oct 2021 - 8:42 pm

Any company that runs such a pathetic promotion supporting greyhound racing deserves to have their share price in the doldrums. And as soon as we get the online petition going (which is about to go up) to deter advertisers from supporting your silly network, your share price is going to dive.

The Sports Fan
26 Oct 2021 - 10:43 pm

Is this Hutchy sending out the hint to buy him out?

There’s no real growth area in radio for SEN (as the individual stations or radio network) to go.

There’s no big sports radio name out there they could hire to significantly move the radio ratings needle.

There’s not really any big sports radio rights that could additionally acquire.

SEN Track is now a total bust as they missed out on buying RSN927 (and with it the Victorian radio racing rights).

It’s just status quo (or downhill) from here in the radio operations.

Hutchy saying it’s a great price goes along with my theory I’ve had for the last three years, he was trying to swallow up as much in the sports radio field as he could, then sell it all as one big package to a larger company (like Disney, owners of ESPN).

Josh
27 Oct 2021 - 2:04 pm

@the sports fan

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Greg
27 Oct 2021 - 3:16 pm

Looking at their ratings performance in all markets, Im not sure how the business is profitable…

Anonymous
27 Oct 2021 - 3:19 pm

“We’ve got so many radio licenses we haven’t yet really grown into. There’s a lot of blue sky in our radio business”
Hutchy its a shame that many of your radio licences are off the dial of the majority of receivers or at such low power that you can only hear them if you are parked outside the transmitter site
Get some decent program content and you might get some decent backers for the SEN House Of Cards

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