Tanenbaum completes MLSE stake buy

Tanenbaum completes MLSE stake buy
DAVID SHOALTS
Globe and Mail Update
February 19, 2009 at 1:41 PM EST

TORONTO — Larry Tanenbaum is now officially the second-largest shareholder of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.


MLSE, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL and the Toronto Raptors of the NBA and the Air Canada Centre, announced on Thursday that Tanenbaum completed his purchase of half of CTVglobemedia Inc.'s stake in the company. The deal was originally announced in December and is thought to have cost Tanenbaum, who is chairman of MLSE, about $90-million for CTVglobemedia Inc.'s shares, which amounted to 7.7 per cent of MLSE.

The sale, which raises Tanenbaum's share of MLSE to 20.5 per cent, became official on Thursday when the NHL, the NBA and the Major League Soccer all approved the transaction. MLSE also owns Toronto FC of the MLS.

"It's the same deal that was announced, it seems like, a lifetime ago," Dale Lastman, Tanenbaum's lawyer and a member of the MLSE board of directors, said. "It will be business as usual."

The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board is the largest shareholder of MLSE with 58.4 per cent. Aside from Tanenbaum and CTVglobemedia Inc. (which owns The Globe and Mail), the other shareholder is the Toronto-Dominion Bank, which has 14 per cent.

While Tanenbaum's goal is to gain majority ownership of the company, and the sale gives him strategic access to more shares if the other investors want to sell, there is no indication the Teachers Pension Plan is ready to cash in its shares.

Based on the price of the transaction, the current value of MLSE is about $1.2-billion.