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S&P Says It May Raise Lionsgate Credit Rating Following Summit Deal

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday January 18, 2012 @ 3:19pm PSTTags: Lionsgate, Standard & Poor's, Summit Entertainment

The financial community is thumbs-up on Lionsgate’s $412.5M acquisition of Summit Entertainment. Lionsgate shares appreciated 6.3% since the companies announced the deal on Friday. And today Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said it’s considering raising Lionsgate’s debt rating from its current ‘B-’. The deal “modestly improves Lionsgate’s business risk profile, mainly on account of increased leverage over exhibitors and creative capabilities,” credit analyst Deborah Kinzer says. Don’t throw the confetti yet, though: Considering how volatile the film business is, and how much it costs to make movies, “we would most likely assess the combined company’s business risk profile as ‘vulnerable’ or ‘weak’,” she says. S&P won’t decide whether to raise the credit rating until it meets with management. “Key ratings considerations will include the combined company’s pro forma liquidity position, production strategy, and acquisition orientation under the new structure,” says Kinzer. Earlier today Miller Tabak & Co analyst David Joyce said that Lionsgate “could pay down the Summit related debt with cash flow from The Hunger Games and the upcoming Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 home entertainment release and the theatrical and home entertainment releases of Breaking Dawn Part 2 in 1H15 if not earlier.”

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Media Stocks Join Market Exuberance Over Effort To Stabilize Banking System

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday November 30, 2011 @ 3:29pm PSTTags: CBS, Comcast, Disney, Entercom, LIN TV, Netflix, News Corp, Sony, Standard & Poor's, Stock Market, The New York Times Company, Time Warner, Viacom, Westwood One

The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 4.3% today after central banks in the U.S., Europe, and Japan said that they’d help supply cash to avoid a credit crunch if the European debt crisis worsens. That … Read More »

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McGraw-Hill To Split Standard & Poor’s and Textbooks Into Separate Companies

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Monday September 12, 2011 @ 4:08am PDTTags: McGraw-Hill, Standard & Poor's

This seems to be just what many angry shareholders wanted. Activist hedge fund Jana Partners and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board lobbied for just such a change in July when they bought 5.2% of the publishing, investment analysis and TV station company. The concern is that the hefty … Read More »

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“Exceptional” Disney To Issue More Debt

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday August 17, 2011 @ 10:50am PDTTags: Standard & Poor's, Walt Disney Co

Walt Disney Co plans to sell $750 million worth of both five- and 10-year notes and $350 million of 30-year bonds, issuing its first 30-year debt in almost a decade. Disney is selling bonds for the second time this year despite Standard & Poor’s saying the company already has “exceptional … Read More »

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UPDATE: Media Stocks Down, But With Exceptions, As Overseas Debt Fears Grow

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday August 10, 2011 @ 8:59am PDTTags: AOL, Disney, E.W. Scripps, Gannett, LIN TV, Lionsgate, Live Nation, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange, Rovi, Standard & Poor's, The New York Times, Time Warner Cable, Westwood One

UPDATE 4:10 PM: The markets couldn’t sustain an early afternoon rally amid concerns that France might lose its AAA debt rating and that Spain or Italy might default on payments. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell … Read More »

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Is McGraw-Hill Under Attack? Activist Investors Buy In Seeking A Shake-Up

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Monday August 1, 2011 @ 2:29pm PDTTags: McGraw-Hill, Standard & Poor's

Look out McGraw-Hill. Activist hedge fund Jana Partners and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board have bought 5.2% of the publishing, investment analysis and TV station company — and say that they may try to break it up. The … Read More »

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