Liberty Media to Split Off Braves, Create New Stock
Friday, November 18th, 2022
Liberty Media Corporation today announced that its board of directors has authorized management to pursue a split-off of the Atlanta Braves and its associated real estate development project and the creation of a new Liberty Live Group tracking stock.
"We plan to split off the Atlanta Braves into an asset-backed stock to better highlight its strong value. Additionally, post Split-Off, we plan to recapitalize all of Liberty Media’s remaining common stock into three tracking stock groups," said Greg Maffei, Liberty Media President and CEO. "These actions will provide greater investor choice and enable targeted investment and capital-raising through more focused currencies, while maintaining an optimal capital structure for Liberty Media and preserving optionality with respect to our subsidiary SiriusXM and our Live Nation stake."
The Split-Off would be accomplished through the redemption of Liberty Media’s existing Liberty Braves common stock in exchange for common stock of a newly formed company to be called Atlanta Braves Holdings, Inc. ("Atlanta Braves Holdings"). Atlanta Braves Holdings would hold all of the businesses, assets and liabilities currently attributed to the Braves Group, including Braves Holdings, LLC, which is the direct or indirect owner and operator of the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball Club, certain assets and liabilities associated with the Atlanta Braves’ stadium and mixed use development project, The Battery Atlanta, and corporate cash. In connection with the Split-Off, Liberty Media would redeem each outstanding share of its Series A, Series B and Series C Liberty Braves common stock for one share of the corresponding series of common stock of Atlanta Braves Holdings. As a result of the Split-Off, Liberty Media and Atlanta Braves Holdings would be separate publicly traded companies. It is expected that the intergroup interests in the Braves Group held by Liberty Media’s existing Liberty SiriusXM Group and Formula One Group would be settled and extinguished in connection with the Split-Off in a manner to be determined.