NEW YORK (AFP) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. media empire officially became a US entity following the transfer of its headquarters from Australia.
News Corp.'s base is now in the eastern state of Delaware with its main share listing moving from Sydney to New York.
The group said in a statement that it had had completed its reincorporation from Australia to the United States on Friday.
It said a secondary listing on the London stock exchange should be completed by the end of the month.
The media conglomerate's headquarters had previously been in the Australian city of Adelaide, where Murdoch founded his empire.
Murdoch is Australian-born but has also taken US nationality as he steps up his global reach.
Shareholders agreed the move from Adelaide in October, in a bid to further strengthen its growth and access to US capital markets.
News Corp estimates that 75 percent of its revenues now come from the United States.
With interests in cable and satellite television and movies, newspapers, magazines and book publishing, News Corp said that on September 30 it had assets worth approximately 52 billion dollars and total annual revenues of approximately 22 billion dollars.
It runs the Fox television channel in the United States, the Star pan-Asian satellite channel, HarperCollins publishing company, The Times and The Sun newspapers in Britain and the New York Post tabloid.
News Corp.'s primary share listing in New York will be under the ticker symbols NWS for Class B (Voting) Common Stock and NWS.A for Class A (Non-voting) Common Stock.
11/12/2004 - 16:01 GMT - AFP