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Madison Square Garden Company to go ahead with business split
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 30 March 2015
The Madison Square Garden Company is ploughing ahead with previously mooted plans to split itself into two separate publicly listed companies. Music and live entertainment will sit in one business, while the firm’s media interests will go in the other. MSG’s sporting interests will seemingly sit with the former.
Confirming the split plans were now going ahead, the company said in a statement on Friday: “After review, MSG’s board of directors believes that, while MSG has created significant shareholder value since it was established as a public company five years ago, separating MSG’s live sports and entertainment businesses from its media business now would further enhance the long-term value-creation potential of both businesses”.
Synergies between the entertainment and media sides of MSG would continue after the split, the statement added, saying: “While the companies would continue to benefit from commercial arrangements between them, the separation would provide each company with increased strategic flexibility to pursue its own distinctive business plan and allow each to have a capital structure and capital return policy that is appropriate for its business”.
As for how it would work from a shareholder’s perspective, the statement concluded: “Upon completion of the spin-off, MSG shareholders would own shares in both companies and have the ability to evaluate each company’s current business and future prospects in making investment decisions”.
