In an apparent vote of confidence in Gannett, institutional investor AXA Financial of New York told the Securities and Exchange Commission this morning that it had accumulated 5.3% of GCI's shares -- a total of 12.3 million -- as of Dec. 31, 2007. Under SEC rules, investors whose stakes rise to 5% of more must disclose their ownership position.
It appears AXA intends to be a passive investor, so won't seek immediate changes, based on the type of SEC filing it used -- Form 13G, under rule 13d-1(b). But I'm not 100% sure, so I've asked for comment from both AXA and from Gannett Corporate. I also can't tell when AXA started accumulating its shares -- or the prices it paid.
Still, AXA's disclosure came the same day that Moody's Investors Service said it had downgraded the outlook on Gannett to "negative" from "stable," while it affirmed its existing ratings, Thomson Financial says.
Prior to today, Brandes Investment Partners had been the only investor with 5% or more of Gannett's shares, according to MSN Money data. Another affiliate of AXA, AllianceBernstein, owned 5.6 million Gannett shares as of Sept. 30, MSN Money data shows.
I know little about AXA, other than the fact that it's the corporate parent of well-known U.S. money manager Sanford C. Bernstein and Co.
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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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