Rupert Murdoch's Fox says goodbye to Australia

Rupert Murdoch’s flagship media business, the TV and film giant, 21st Century Fox, plans to cut its links with his native land by delisting from the Australian stock market.

Fox will keep its primary listing on New York’s Nasdaq as part of what Murdoch called “our ongoing agenda to simplify the operating and capital structure”.

Murdoch said the move will boost liquidity and improve voting rights for foreign investors.

Non-US shareholders’ rights are limited at present because American TV regulators restrict foreign ownership of channels to 25 per cent.

The delisting follows Fox’s split from Murdoch’s troubled newspaper division, News Corporation, last June in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal in London.

Fox has “only limited operations” in Australia as News Corp controls Murdoch’s local interests, including TV.

The Simpsons and X-Men are among Fox’s hit US TV shows and films and it is also the top shareholder in British pay-TV giant BSkyB.