Investors – and baseball fans – will be able to buy and sell shares of stock in the Atlanta Braves next year under an unusual plan unveiled Thursday by team owner Liberty Media.
Liberty, a publicly traded company with a range of media and entertainment assets, said it will create a tracking stock that will provide a way to invest in the Braves’ financial performance separate from the rest of the conglomerate.
The Colorado-based company will continue to control the Braves under the plan, but the new stock — expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange in the first half of next year – will make the Braves one of the few sports franchises with publicly listed shares allowing for direct investment.
“It’s a Brave new world,” Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said in announcing the plan to investors.
The tracking stock, designated as the “Liberty Braves Group,” will include the Braves and the team’s interests in the new SunTrust Park and adjacent mixed-use development in Cobb County.
Liberty said its current shareholders will get corresponding shares in the new Braves stock and two other tracking stocks also announced Thursday.
Liberty said it also plans to raise $200 million from a rights offering of additional Braves shares. That money will be used in large part to repay approximately $165 million borrowed by the Braves from Liberty for the stadium project, the company said.
Initial share prices haven’t been determined.
In addition to the Braves stock, Liberty Media plans a tracking stock tied to its 60-percent ownership stake in satellite radio provider Sirius XM and another tied to its stakes in Live Nation Entertainment and other assets.
The plans are subject to approval by Liberty Media shareholders and other conditions.
Maffei said Liberty’s goal is to reduce the discount at which it believes its stock currently trades in relation to the value of underlying assets, as well as to provide greater investor choice and to raise capital in a targeted way.
Please see MyAJC.com for more on this story.
