An unnamed third party has provided the New Zealand Commerce Commission with a potential alternative to allowing the sale of Fairfax NZ to NZME.
The company has confirmed that it "recently received" a letter from a third party which it says claims to have a client interested in looking at buying the business.
Fairfax Media is prevented from entertaining any third party offer under the "binding merger implementation agreement" it made with NZME in September. But the NZCC has made it clear that it has problems with the transaction, and said last month that it was disposed to knock back the deal.
Time has been left for a possible public meeting ahead of a decision by next March, but no meeting date has been set.
Approval by the NZCC is one of the conditions of the transaction - for $NZ55 million cash and a 41 per cent shareholding - and Fairfax says the parties are "going through the approval process".
Fairfax says the name of the client is not disclosed, and the letter "contains no offer capable of acceptance".
A report in today's Australian says "some sources" point to US hedge fund Apollo Global Management as "the mystery suitor", while others suggest a consortium of New Zealanders. Other independent publishers in the country are known to be unhappy about the merger.
Apart from newspapers including the (Wellington) Dominion Post and (Christchurch) The Press, and magazines, a prime Fairfax NZ asset is the Stuff.co.nz website. At NewsMediaWorks' Future Forum event in August, Fairfax NZ group executive editor Sinead Boucher (pictured) said Stuff was just behind Facebook and Google and "within catching distance".