Sunday, January 1, 2012
Summit views two suitors
Summit Entertainment, among the town's greatest success tales recently, starts 2012 with two potential purchasers seriously kicking the tires from the minimajor. Privately owned Summit, facing the finish from the "Twilight" franchise this season, could decide as soon as now whether or not to accept competing buyout offers from Lionsgate and Miramax owner Colony Capital. Although the talks happen to be happening for many days, spokespeople for that three companies haven't confirmed the discussions and also have didn't have comment. People acquainted with the problem have indicated the bids for Summit have been in $350 million to $400 million range and noted that the deal might take a lot more days to shut. Like a public company, Lionsgate could be needed to obvious several hurdles to accomplish this type of transaction -- which is not likely to include giving quite a lot of stock or debt. Summit's entering 2012 using its 4th "Twilight" pic getting tallied up an outstanding $273 million locally and the other $362 million worldwide. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Beginning -- Part 2," because of open November. 16, will probably perform within the same range.In the last 5 years, Summit co-chairs Take advantage of Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger have changed Summit from the foreign sales company right into a full-service production and distribution studio. Their timing continues to be fortunate with Summit announcing a $1 billion financing offer April 2007 -- a transaction that will not have been possible a couple of several weeks later because the real estate markets started melting lower. In March, Summit Entertainment closed a $750 million financing deal -- a $550 million term loan along with a $200 million turning credit line -- that permitted the organization to unshackle itself from itself from a number of its debt, increase feature production and run day-to-day procedures. Additionally, it compensated a cash distribution to the biggest traders, including Participant Media and equity fund Rizvi Traverse Management.If either the Lionsgate or Colony deals undergo, Friedman and Wachsberger are likely to stay in some type of top-level professional capabilities within the merged entity. Summit and Lionsgate have experienced discussions about joining together returning so far as nov 2008, right before the bow from the first "Twilight" pic. Colony, which completed a $663 million buyout of Miramax from Disney in December 2010, emerged just as one Summit bidder in November. Both deals would bolster the brand new Summit's capability to operate like a minimajor. Lionsgate and Miramax possess significant libraries and also the merged entity might have more firepower inside a marketplace in which the major have scaly back producing mid-budget films in support of tentpole and franchise qualities -- creating an chance for substantial indies to fill that gap. Summit has proven that it may exploit a franchise in "Twilight" while Lionsgate's at the time of beginning its very own tentpole property using the four-picture "The Hunger Games" franchise. The very first "Games" opens March 23 and also the trailer continues to be mounted on "Breaking Beginning -- Part 1." Lionsgate is originating off annually that's seen its stock appreciate by 28%, closing the entire year at $8.32. Shares have been held lower recently because of mixed performance by its movies along with a barrage of criticsim from billionaire Carl Icahn, who agreed at the end of August to market off his stake.Lionsgate, that has a comprehensive TV production/distribution operation, includes a notable history around the acquisition front under Jon Feltheimer, co-chairman and Boss, and vice chairman Michael Burns -- Trimark in 2000, Artisan in 2003, Redbus in 2005, Debmar-Mercury in 2006, Mandate in 2007 and television Guide last year together with a stake in Kerbside Points of interest in 2007. Regardless of the ongoing fight with Icahn, Lionsgate continued to be an energetic bidder for MGM last year and 2010 prior to the Lion experienced its pre-packed personal bankruptcy at the end of 2010. For Colony Capital, the non-public investment firm headed by Tom Barrack shored up its financing recently using a securitization from the Miramax assets inside a bond offering worth $500 million. The securitization deal used a completely independent evaluation by Duff and Phelps that called Miramax's total worth at a lot more than $813 million by last This summer 1.Miramax, headed by Boss Mike Lang, signed a lot more than $300 million in new certification contracts this past year, a lot of which originated from Netflix and Hulu. Miramax is developing about 20 feature projects with outdoors partners but doesn't have intends to start funding production and it has centered on taking advantage of its 700-title library. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com
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