Indiana Pacers owner Herbert Simon has teamed with Jeff Smulyan to buy common stock in Emmis Communications.
Smulyan, who is chairman, president and chief executive of Emmis, said he and Simon are buying the publicly traded stock because it's a good buy.
"I believe our stock is undervalued," Smulyan said. "It makes sense to do it."
A corporation that Simon and Smulyan set up, HSJS LLC, reported in a federal securities filing Friday that it has authorized its purchaser Stifel Nicolaus & Co. to buy up to 1 million Emmis shares starting last Thursday. That apparently is in addition to 585,980 shares HSJS purchased May 11 through Wednesday.
A 1.5-million-share stake would equal about 4.4 percent of the 34 million outstanding class A common shares in Emmis, an Indianapolis media company that owns radio stations and community publications.
Smulyan said he teamed with Simon -- whose wealth makes him one of the 400 richest Americans in Forbes magazine's annual rankings -- because "we are old friends."
Simon, who is a director and former chairman of shopping mall giant Simon Property Group, has never been an investor in Emmis before, Smulyan said.
He denied the stock buys are part of another attempt to take Emmis private. Two previous Smulyan-led efforts to go private failed when class B shareholders blocked the moves.
Emmis' faltering stock fell under $1 a share in recent months, putting it in danger of being delisted on the exchange where it trades.
But a recent deal by Emmis to sell assets in one of its radio stations in New York and pay off an expensive line of credit on its books has boosted the value of its stock well over $1.
HSJS' filings said it has paid between $1.30 and $1.49 a share for Emmis stock so far.
Its purchase plan gives Stifel Nicolaus the go-ahead to buy shares for up to $2 a share.
Emmis shares rose nearly 7 percent in trading Monday, closing at $1.59.
Call Star reporter Jeff Swiatek at (317) 444-6483.
No comments:
Post a Comment