LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has sold its entire holding of more than 12 million shares of Live Nation.
The sale, which was disclosed in an SEC filing dated November 14th, revealed the sale of 12,573,719 shares, representing a 5.4% stake in Live Nation. The actual date of the sale, and the price at which the shares were sold, was not disclosed.
Saudi Arabia’s PIF first acquired a position in Live Nation in April 2020 in a deal that was valued at approximately $500 million at the time.
The PIF’s stake was acquired by George S. Loening’s Select Equity Group, a Delaware-based private equity investment fund, in a transaction that was also reported on November 14th.
The news comes just a day after Liberty Media, a longtime major holder of Live Nation, announced plans to spin off some of its entertainment assets, including Live Nation, into a standalone company called Liberty Live.
According to Liberty Media’s President & CEO Greg Maffei, the move was intended to “simplify Liberty Media’s capital structure” and “reduce the discount to net asset value of our Liberty Live stock and enhance trading liquidity at both entities.”
The asset shuffle also comes as Live Nation is reportedly one of the most shorted stocks on the S&P 500. According to research by the financial news and analysis platform Seeking Alpha, investors betting on Live Nation’s stock to decline hold 8.38% of the company’s current float. However, investors betting on Live Nation’s stock to fall in the short term are likely dismayed by the company’s performance since the recent U.S. elections on November 4th. Since the re-election of Donald Trump, the company’s share price has increased from $117.6 on November 5th to $129.4 today, a gain of more than 10%.
