Liberty Strategic Capital, a private equity fund led by former Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, has acquired a hefty 5.5% stake in Lionsgate at a strategically sensitive moment for the company as it prepares to close the acquisition of eOne and plans to split up its studio and streaming businesses.
Lionsgate declined to comment on the news, revealed in an SEC filling this afternoon, that Liberty Capital purchased 4,594,863 shares of Lionsgate in several dozen transactions between Aug. 10 and Aug. 30 at a price ranging from just over $7 a share to $7.46.
The filng hints that the long-gestating separation of Lionsgate and Starz, which the company said last month it expects to complete in the first quarter of 2024, may have prompted the move. It noted that Lionsgate “has publicly proposed a spin-off of its studio business as a separate public company.”
The document said the new stakeholder may contact other shareholders, management and board members of Lionsgate with “suggestions or proposals” on a wide range of issues — “including a potential investment by the Reporting Persons in a spin-off of the Issuer’s studio business or other restructuring, assets and liabilities, business and financing alternatives, the composition of the board of directors and such other matters as the Reporting Persons may deem relevant to their investment in the Issuer.”
“The Issuer has publicly proposed a spin-off of its studio business as a separate public company, LG Orion Holdings Inc. (“SpinCo”). The Reporting Persons may engage in any of the activities described above with respect to SpinCo, prior to or following completion of the spin-off.”
More to come…
