Media

Australia's Ten Network Shares Dive 25% After Cash Call

A man uses his mobile phone in front of electronic stock boards at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX Ltd.) headquarters in Sydney, Australia.
Ian Waldie | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares in Australia's loss-making Ten Network sank 25 percent on Monday as they resumed trading after Ten's second cash call in under six months.

Australia's third-ranked television network tapped its shareholders, including billionaires Lachlan Murdoch, James Packer and mining magnate Gina Rinehart, for a A$230 million($240 million) capital raising program last week to pay down debt.

The shares were down 24.6 percent to A$0.245 at 2335 GMT after touching a low of A$0.24.

(Read More: Australia's Ten Network Announces Capital Raising)

Ten has been struggling to find hit shows and has lost market share to top-ranked competitor Seven Network and the Nine Network, which is now owned by its lenders.

Lachlan Murdoch, son of News Corp Chairman Rupert,and James Packer, the son of late media billionaire Kerry Packer, bought into Ten in 2010.

Murdoch, Packer and Rinehart are estimated by local media to have lost over A$350 million on their combined investment in Ten over the past two years.