Seven Group Holdings Rebrands to SGH Limited to Reflect Industrial Focus

About Seven Group Holdings Limited

Seven Group Holdings Limited (Seven Group, SGH, the Group, ASX: SVW) is a diversified operating and investment Group employing 15,000 people across 5 businesses in the Industrial Services, Energy and Media sectors. The Stokes family own 51 percent of Seven Group. These businesses and investments include WesTrac, the 100 percent owned sole authorised Caterpillar dealer in WA, NSW and ACT; Boral which is Australia’s largest integrated construction materials supplier, and Coates which is the largest provider of equipment solutions in Australia.

The Group also owns 30 percent of Beach Energy, a mid-tier energy exploration and gas production company; and 40 percent of Seven West Media, which owns the Seven Network and The West Australian newspaper.

Change of Company name

Seven Group shareholders have approved the Group’s name change from Seven Group Holdings Limited to “SGH Limited”. The Group’s current name was adopted in 2010 and reflected the merging of Seven Network and WesTrac Holdings. At that time, the Group’s primary focus was on media and non-operated investments. The name change indirectly retains a link to the Group’s media heritage, however the ASX listing code change is a clear statement that provides a stronger, more relevant, and more direct linkage between the Company name and equity markets.

The ASX listing code will change from “SVW” to “SGH”.

The name change was approved by Special Resolution passed by a 75 percent majority of shareholders at the Annual General Meeting on 14 November. The name change has been reserved by Seven Group and will take effect from November 18, following ASIC approval and the share register update.

Why the name change?

Since 2010, the Company has changed significantly.

Firstly, it no longer operates under a Holding Company model. Today, Seven Group is a diversified industrial operating Company comprising various businesses conducted under an Operating Model. Under the Operating Model, each business is independently operated and expected to deliver an acceptable return on equity in its own right, that is not reliant on the performance of other members of the Group. This is a key element of SGH’s disciplined capital allocation framework that has driven its consistent earnings growth over a lengthy period.

Secondly, media is not a core business of the Group. Media assets account for less than 1 percent of Group assets. SGH has evolved to become one of Australia’s leading industrial-focused and diversified operating companies.

It is significant that the 2024 Chairman’s Letter to shareholders in the 2024 annual report stated the Group’s focus is in three sectors – Mining Production (WesTrac), Infrastructure and Construction, (Boral and Coates) and thirdly, Gas to support the energy transition (Beach Energy). Significantly Media (Seven West Media) did not rate a mention in the 2024 chairman’s letter.

At the AGM on 14 November, these three sectors were refined to simply Industrials and Energy. This description reflects SGH’s long-term sectoral demand outlook, and where it will seek to deploy incremental capital going forward.

As an ASX Top 50 Company by market capitalisation with more than 40,000 shareholders, the name change is entirely appropriate and has been well received by the market.