Ryan Kavanaugh Headshot - H 2014
Film, TV and sports management company Relativity Media has long been mulling an initial public offering, with CEO Ryan Kavanaugh now telling Bloomberg Television that he expects the stock market listing within 12 to 18 months.
The company is currently in the process of refinancing its debt and raising equity in preparation for the IPO, he said. “We are on our pre-IPO road show right now,” he told the financial news network. “Our goal is to have it happen some time, let’s say, in the next 12 to 18 months.”
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As a publicly traded company, Relativity could use its stock as currency for acquisitions, particularly in the tech sector, Kavanaugh said.
Bloomberg said that chatter of a $1 billion pre-IPO fundraising target was too high, according to the CEO. While he didn’t provide a specific figure, he spoke of “a chunk of capital, which is a good size.”
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Asked about recent reports that Relativity was looking to list its stock in New York and Hong Kong, Kavanaugh told Bloomberg: “We kind of consider ourselves as much a Chinese company as we do a U.S. company.”
He also highlighted that the film studio contributes only around 50 percent of his company’s business, with reality TV, sports representation agency work, fashion content and the like making up the rest.
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Relativity recently failed with a last-minute bid for Maker Studios, which the Walt Disney Co. acquired.
Email: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
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