News Corp to sell entire stake in New Zealand's Sky Network Television for $714 mn

News Corp, controlled by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, will sell its 44-per cent stake in Sky Network Television Ltd, New Zealand's largest television operator today said in a statement.

Sky TV was placed on a trading halt and the sale is expected to take two days.

Shares in Sky TV closed on Friday at A$4.14, which would value News Corp's stake at around A$700 million ($714 million).

News Corp's stake is held through its Australian arm News Limited and will be sold to a broad range of institutional and retail investors through a placement run by Deutsche Bank and the New Zealand advisory group Craigs Investment Partners.

''We and Sky have always enjoyed an excellent, arms-length working relationship and we expect this to continue unaffected by the sale,'' Chase Carey, president and chief operating officer of News Corp, said in a statement.

News Corp. which also owns Dow Jones & Co and The Wall Street Journal, plans to separate its entertainment businesses from its publishing division to create two separately listed companies by June this year.

Sky TV has around 846,240 subscribers, representing 49.2 per cent of households, making it the largest pay-television operator in New Zealand.