Lionsgate Pitches Lenders on 'Twilight' Cash Flows to Fund Summit Takeover

TORONTO - As Lionsgate Entertainment pitches lenders on its Summit Entertainment takeover, the indie studio is trumpeting Twilight cash flows to finance the deal.

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In an SEC 8K filing on Wednesday, Lionsgate unveiled a slide show to potential lenders that indicated the teen vampire movie franchise had delivered $2.5 billion in worldwide box office to date.

In that total, the debut Breaking Dawn picture delivered $700 million worldwide ticket receipts and $280 million in domestic box office.

Lionsgate added the larger bulk of Breaking Dawn cash inflows are contracted and "to come," with Summit have pre-negotiated pay and cable TV licensing agreements with Showtime and FX.

The indie studio is looking to structure a $500 million term loan as a Summit credit facility.

The slide presentation also revealed that privately-held Summit posted revenue of $722.1 million in the fiscal year to December 2009, and revenue of $1.15 billion in the year to December 2010.

Lionsgate also revealed Summit posted revenue of $331.3 million in the nine months to September 2011, just ahead of the opening of Breaking Dawn 1.