April 30, 2013
Time Warner agrees to exercise preemptive right to purchase 49.9% of the number of shares of Class A common stock sold in CME’s $174 million public offering, and will purchase $200 million of CME’s new Series B Preferred shares in a private placement.
On April 29, Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. announced that it has commenced an underwritten public offering to raise aggregate gross proceeds of $174 million through the sale of shares of its Class A common stock. Willkie client Time Warner Inc., CME's largest shareholder, intends to exercise its preexisting contractual preemptive right to purchase 49.9% of the number of shares of Class A common stock sold in the offering, subject to certain limitations. In addition, CME will sell to Time Warner $200 million of its shares of Series B Convertible Redeemable Preferred Stock in a private placement.
CME is a media and entertainment company operating leading businesses in six Central and Eastern European markets with an aggregate population of approximately 50 million people. Willkie previously advised Time Warner in its $300 million, $60.3 million and $242 million investments in CME in 2012, 2011 and 2009, respectively. The current deal was handled by partners William Gump and Thomas Mark and associates Danielle Scalzo and Jonathan Scott.
