Packer Drops Bid for Bond’s Media Assets

SYDNEY, Australia — Alan Bond, the Houdini of Australian corporate life, on Thursday escaped from another difficult situation when billionaire Kerry Packer withdrew a takeover bid for the media assets of Bond’s crumbling empire.

Packer, Australia’s richest man, announced that he was pulling the plug on a bid to reclaim the highly successful Channel 9 television network, which Bond bought off him for $750 million ($1 billion Australian) in 1987.

Packer’s takeover vehicle, Television Corp. of Australia, said the expiration on Sunday of an underwriting agreement to fund the takeover had caused Packer to drop the hostile bid, due to close May 11.

“TCA wishes to advise that, given the imminent expiry of its underwriting agreement, TCA has sought and obtained from the National Companies and Securities Commission consent to the withdrawal of its takeover offer,” it said in a statement.