Teachers' Pension Plan boosts stake in MLSE (Leafs, Raptors, TFC)

[TicTacTabarnack]

More Teacher control ... Here's to MLSE providing the fund high Returns on Equity!


Teachers' Pension Plan boosts stake in MLSE (Leafs, Raptors, TFC) http://bit.ly/4gtSRb

TORONTO — The Teachers' Pension Plan is boosting its stake in the parent company of Toronto's Maple Leafs and Raptors.

The investment wing of the big pension fund plans to buy a 7.7 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which will give it 66 per cent of the company that also owns the Toronto FC soccer club and the Air Canada Centre.

Financial details were not disclosed.

The stake is being sold by media empire CTVglobemedia.

CTVglobemedia says the time is right for it to sell the stake and use it to pay down debt.

The deal needs approval from the professional sports leagues involved.

[tfcmanu]

* Buys media company's 7.7 percent stake
* Teachers now holds 66 percent
TORONTO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan said on Thursday it is buying a 7.7 percent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment from privately held media company CTVglobemedia.
Buying out the last of CTVglobemedia's investment means Teachers will have a 66 percent stake in MLSE, Canada's largest sports company. Financial terms weren't disclosed....cont'd link

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2052789320090820

[prizby]

doesn't bell own the other 33% or so?

[prizby]

nope i guess not



Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Teachers%27_Pension_Plan) (58%)
Kilmer Sports Inc. (20.5%)
TD Bank Financial Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Bank) (14%)
CTVglobemedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTVglobemedia) (7.5%)

[TicTacTabarnack]

nope i guess not
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Teachers%27_Pension_Plan) (58%)
Kilmer Sports Inc. (20.5%)
TD Bank Financial Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Bank) (14%)
CTVglobemedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTVglobemedia) (7.5%)

Cool ... Thanks for that. I'm surprised that TD hasn't been more involved in sponsorship considering their stake in the company.

Also interesting ... Kilmer Sports Inc = Larry Tanenbaum

[prizby]

funny...bmo field, tfc owned by TD

go figure

[wzhxvy]

Obviously Larry aka Kilmer is running out of cash or choosing to no longer increase his share in MLSE

[Hitcho]

More Teacher control ... Here's to MLSE providing the fund high Returns on Equity!

I see your point, but i'd rather say "here's to MLSE spending all that equity on a new stadum, grass and a DP". nothing against teachers, but building a pension plan is now what a sports team is SUPPOSED to be about.

unless you're ml$e of course.

[Pookie]

I see your point, but i'd rather say "here's to MLSE spending all that equity on a new stadum, grass and a DP". nothing against teachers, but building a pension plan is now what a sports team is SUPPOSED to be about.

unless you're ml$e of course.

Keep in mind though that one of the major goals of a pension fund is to increase the long term value of the asset, not necessarily to generate short term income.

By increasing the value of the holdings, they eventually profit from the sale.

In sports, winning does increase the value. Increasing BMO revenue through expansion and events that could be hosted if there was a natural grass surface are all key towards building value in the franchise.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

[canadian_bhoy]

Purpose of a pension plan is to protect money and make it grow...splashing on big name players/facilities is a risk to their investment.

Things just got worse for sports fans in Toronto.

TEACHERS OUT NOW!

I wish this guy would just buy out MLSE and run our team with Cubanesque swagar!

http://dalnews.dal.ca/2006/04/27/rim-300.jpg

[DangerRed]

Things just got worse for sports fans in Toronto.



What? How?

Prior to this transaction, Teachers had 58.4 pct of MLSE. Now it has 66 percent. They were the majority shareholder, and they are the majority shareholder. Therefore, this changes nothing in terms of the magnitude of control that Teachers has over the company. It's just the same as it was, except now Teachers gets a 7.7 percent bigger cut of the profit.

[Pookie]

Purpose of a pension plan is to protect money and make it grow...splashing on big name players/facilities is a risk to their investment.

Things just got worse for sports fans in Toronto.



You've got the purpose right. It grows by increasing its value.

They have over $87B in assets, they aren't concerned with the profit MLSE makes on a day to day basis. They are concerned with the long term value of the holding increasing.

It increases through their ownership and rental of stadiums, merchandise, TV deals, advertising contracts, etc. Not to mention non sports things like real estate development. The more "stuff" they have, the more they can eventually sell their shares for.

Big names help sell those things. Winning helps sell those things. They get more stuff and then sell.

[ensco]

No ability to tell what this means from the outside.

One dynamic worth noting: majority owners don't like to see small stakes sold at a loss, which might have occurred here in the absence of the Teachers' offer for the shares. In which case Teachers might have to take a writedown on MLSE. Trust me, Teachers' execs would sooner pull their children from private school, than take a writedown. Writedowns cost people jobs.

Also: it's very common for majority shareholders in these situations to acquire loose blocks. It has to do with how securities laws work in certain takeover scenarios. Large minority blocks create problems for majority owners. Soi the majority owner has an incentive not to let a large minority block form.

But it's all speculation: there could be any number of reasons as to why this happened.

[Shakes McQueen]

You've got the purpose right. It grows by increasing its value.

They have over $87B in assets, they aren't concerned with the profit MLSE makes on a day to day basis. They are concerned with the long term value of the holding increasing.

It increases through their ownership and rental of stadiums, merchandise, TV deals, advertising contracts, etc. Not to mention non sports things like real estate development. The more "stuff" they have, the more they can eventually sell their shares for.

Big names help sell those things. Winning helps sell those things. They get more stuff and then sell.

Exactly. It really annoys me how the middling medicority of the Leafs the past several seasons, is used as some sort of "proof" that MLSE doesn't care about winning. They forget that, prior to the cap, the Leafs were competing in the conference finals as recently as 2000, and were one of the highest spending teams in the league.

A pension fund owning the team has nothing to do with poor team management - you can blame morons like Richard Peddie for that in the past. MLSE have not shown a history of being cheap, despite being owned by an investment fund.

And they even appear to be trying to turn around public perception on the management front - signing intelligent sports people like Colangelo and Burke to lucrative contracts, and guaranteeing them relative autonomy to do what they please.

At any rate, the pension fund owning another 8% of the team doesn't change anything from a fan perspective. They were already majority owners.

- Scott

[boban]

Keep in mind though that one of the major goals of a pension fund is to increase the long term value of the asset, not necessarily to generate short term income.

By increasing the value of the holdings, they eventually profit from the sale.

In sports, winning does increase the value. Increasing BMO revenue through expansion and events that could be hosted if there was a natural grass surface are all key towards building value in the franchise.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing.
What are you smoking guy?
Do you click your shoes and find yourself in Kansas also?