Lauder’s CME Announces Public Offering
Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. has commenced an underwritten public offering to raise aggregate gross proceeds of $174,000,000 through the sale of shares of its Class A common stock, par value $0.08 per share, pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement filed with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. All of the shares are being offered by CME.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as the sole book-running manager for the offering. CME intends to grant the underwriters an option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock up to 15 percent of the amount sold in the offering.
Time Warner Media Holdings B.V., an affiliate of Time Warner Inc. and CME’s largest shareholder, has notified CME that it intends to exercise its preexisting contractual preemptive right to purchase 49.9 percent of the number of shares of Class A common stock sold in the offering, subject to certain limitations. The offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the final size or terms of the offering.
In addition, subject to the consummation of this offering with no less than $75,000,000 in gross proceeds to CME [excluding any proceeds from Time Warner's exercise of its contractual preemptive right and from the underwriters' exercise of their option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock], approval by our shareholders and certain other conditions, CME will sell to Time Warner $200,000,000 of its Series B Convertible Redeemable Preferred Stock, par value $0.08 per share, a new series of its preferred stock, in a private placement.
CME intends to apply $300,000,000 of the aggregate net proceeds from the public offering and the issuance and sale to Time Warner of shares of Series B Convertible Redeemable Preferred Stock to fund the repurchase or redemption of a portion of CME’s 11.625% senior notes due 2016. CME intends to use the remainder of the net proceeds from the public offering for general corporate purposes.
Founded by American businessman and philanthropist Ronald Lauder [pictured], CME is a Bermuda-based media and entertainment company operating leading businesses in six Central and Eastern European markets with an aggregate population of approximately 50 million people. CME’s broadcast operations are located in Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. CME also operates Voyo, the pan-regional video-on-demand service. CME is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and the Prague Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CETV”.
