Shares of stock in the Braves are expected to begin trading Monday, according to team owner Liberty Media.
Liberty said it completed a long-in-the-works transaction late Friday to exchange its existing stock for three new tracking stocks – one tied to the Braves (Liberty Braves stock), one tied to the company’s 61-percent stake in satellite radio provider SiriusXM (Liberty SiriusXM stock) and one tied to the company’s other holdings (new Liberty Media stock).
Each share of Liberty’s existing stock is being exchanged for one share of Liberty SiriusXM stock, 0.1 share of Liberty Braves stock and 0.25 share of the new Liberty Media stock, according to the company.
“Liberty anticipates that the newly issued shares will commence trading or quotation in the regular way … on Monday,” the company said.
The Braves stock will be traded under the symbols BATRA (Series A stock), BATRB (Series B) and BATRK (Series C). The Series A and C shares will trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and the Series B shares on the OTC market, Liberty said.
The stock will allow investors and baseball fans to buy and sell shares in the Braves on the open market, like other publicly traded stocks, separate from the rest of the Colorado-based Liberty Media conglomerate. The Braves will become one of the few sports teams in the world with their own publicly traded shares.
The Braves tracking stock is intended to reflect – or track – the economic performance and value of the team and its stake in a mixed-use development being built alongside a new Cobb County stadium. Both SunTrust Park and the mixed-use development, The Battery Atlanta, are slated to open next year.
At a stockholders meeting in Englewood, Colo., this past week, Liberty Media Chairman John Malone told investors to “keep in mind the Braves now are a fairly major real-estate business as opposed to just a baseball club.”
He sidestepped a question about the team’s valuation, saying: “We’ll see shortly. We’ll see what the market puts on it.”
Liberty announced the tracking-stocks plan in November, but the Braves stock will begin trading against the backdrop of the team’s dismal start this season. The Braves had lost nine consecutive games before getting their first win of the season Friday night against the Miami Marlins.
Liberty created the three tracking stocks because its executives believe the combined company has traded at a discount to the value of its parts. Despite having their own stock, the Braves will remain part of the overall Liberty company.
For more information on the Braves stock, click on these previous AJC stories:
