Liberty Media Announces Live Group Spinoff, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund Sells Live Nation Stake As Shares Ride High

Liberty Media has announced plans to spin off its live group, including a sizable stake in Live Nation. Photo Credit: Paweł Bukowski

Liberty Media is officially spinning off its live group – including almost 70 million Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) shares as well as a majority interest in QuintEvents. Plus, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has cashed out of its LYV holding.The F1 owner Liberty Media confirmed those plans (and the yearend exit of CEO Greg Maffei) during its 2024 investor meeting. Though many already know of Colorado-headquartered Liberty’s longstanding Live Nation stake, the entity only closed a deal for over 90% of Quint at the top of 2024.

Based in Charlotte, the latter events business says it’s “committed to developing world-class fan experience and corporate client entertainment activities.” Now, Quint is expected to shift from Liberty’s Formula One Group to the Liberty Live Group “in exchange for certain private assets.”

Consequently, a newly formed Liberty Live is poised to house Quint and the initially noted 69,645,033 Live Nation shares. (Earlier this week, following the release of a solid overall Q3 2024 earnings report, the promoter’s stock cracked a fresh 52-week high of $130.76 per share.)

Meanwhile, shares in Liberty Live itself are set to “trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market or, if necessary, to be quoted on the OTC Markets,” according to Liberty Media, which emphasized for good measure that it will maintain control of Formula 1 and MotoGP post-spinoff.

Of course, the maneuver will require shareholder approval, and assuming, among other things, that the relevant parties green-light the plans, Liberty Media anticipates the spinoff will wrap sometime during 2025’s second half. “The split-off of Liberty Live Group into a separate public entity will simplify Liberty Media’s capital structure, should reduce the discount to net asset value of our Liberty Live stock and enhance trading liquidity at both entities,” Liberty Media head Greg Maffei said in part.

“Since acquiring Quint in January 2024, we have bolstered its partnership with Formula 1 and gained insights into our fans and ticket demand trends, but Quint is also complementary to our interest in Live Nation, especially as Live Nation works to grow its hospitality operations,” the outgoing exec proceeded.

Keeping the focus on Live Nation shares, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund scooped up $500 million worth of the stock (encompassing 12.34 million shares at the time, subsequently upped to 12,565,167 shares) in early 2020, when LYV was sagging amid lockdown measures and large-gathering bans.

According to a new SEC filing, however, the government-owned fund has exited its Live Nation position altogether. Additionally, New York City-based Select Equity Group yesterday acknowledged possessing 12,573,719 shares, or about 5.4% of the Ticketmaster parent.