Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Tracking Stocks

v3.20.2
Tracking Stocks
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Tracking Stocks

(2) Tracking Stocks

A tracking stock is a type of common stock that the issuing company intends to reflect or "track" the economic performance of a particular business or "group," rather than the economic performance of the company as a whole. While the Liberty SiriusXM Group, Braves Group and Formula One Group have separate collections of businesses, assets and liabilities attributed to them, no group is a separate legal entity and therefore cannot own assets, issue securities or enter into legally binding agreements. Therefore, the Liberty SiriusXM Group, Braves Group and Formula One Group do not

represent separate legal entities, but rather represent those businesses, assets and liabilities that have been attributed to each respective group. Holders of tracking stock have no direct claim to the group's stock or assets and therefore, do not own, by virtue of their ownership of a Liberty tracking stock, any equity or voting interest in a public company, such as Sirius XM Holdings or Live Nation, in which Liberty holds an interest and that is attributed to a Liberty tracking stock group, such as the Liberty SiriusXM Group.  Holders of tracking stock are also not represented by separate boards of directors. Instead, holders of tracking stock are stockholders of the parent corporation, with a single board of directors and subject to all of the risks and liabilities of the parent corporation.

On April 22, 2020, the Company’s board of directors approved the immediate reattribution of certain assets and liabilities between the Formula One Group and the Liberty SiriusXM Group (collectively, the “reattribution”).

The assets reattributed from the Formula One Group to the Liberty SiriusXM Group, valued at $2.8 billion, consisted of:

Liberty’s entire Live Nation stake, consisting of approximately 69.6 million shares of Live Nation common stock;
a newly-created Formula One Group intergroup interest, consisting of approximately 5.3 million notional shares of Liberty Formula One common stock (see note 5), to cover exposure under Liberty’s 1.375% cash convertible senior notes due 2023 (the “Convertible Notes”);
the bond hedge and warrants associated with the Convertible Notes;
the entire Liberty SiriusXM Group intergroup interest, consisting of approximately 1.9 million notional shares of Liberty SiriusXM common stock, thereby eliminating the Liberty SiriusXM Group intergroup interest; and
a portion, consisting of approximately 2.3 million notional shares of Liberty Braves common stock (see note 5), of the Formula One Group’s intergroup interest in the Braves Group, to cover exposure under the Convertible Notes.

The reattributed liabilities, valued at $1.3 billion, consisted of:

the Convertible Notes;
Liberty’s 2.25% exchangeable senior debentures due 2048; and
Liberty’s margin loan secured by shares of Live Nation (“Live Nation Margin Loan”).  

Similarly, $1.5 billion of net asset value has been reattributed from the Liberty SiriusXM Group to the Formula One Group, comprised of:

a call spread between the Formula One Group and the Liberty SiriusXM Group with respect to 34.8 million of the Live Nation shares that were reattributed to the Liberty SiriusXM Group; and
a net cash payment of $1.4 billion from the Liberty SiriusXM Group to the Formula One Group, which was funded by a combination of (x) cash on hand, (y) an additional $400 million drawn from the Company’s existing margin loan secured by shares of common stock of Sirius XM Holdings, resulting in an aggregate outstanding balance of $750 million, and (z) the creation of an intergroup loan obligation from the Liberty SiriusXM Group to the Formula One Group in the principal amount of $750 million, plus interest thereon, which was repaid with the proceeds from the LSXMK rights offering described below (the “Intergroup Loan”).

The reattribution is reflected in the Company’s financial statements on a prospective basis.

The Liberty SiriusXM common stock is intended to track and reflect the separate economic performance of the businesses, assets and liabilities attributed to the Liberty SiriusXM Group. As of September 30, 2020, the Liberty SiriusXM Group is comprised of Liberty’s interests in Sirius XM Holdings and Live Nation, corporate cash, Liberty’s 1.375% Cash

Convertible Notes due 2023 and related financial instruments, Liberty’s 2.125% Exchangeable Senior Debentures due 2048, Liberty’s 2.25% Exchangeable Senior Debentures due 2048, Liberty’s 2.75% Exchangeable Senior Debentures due 2049 and margin loan obligations incurred by wholly-owned special purpose subsidiaries of Liberty. The Liberty SiriusXM Group holds intergroup interests in the Formula One Group and the Braves Group as of September 30, 2020. As of September 30, 2020, the Liberty SiriusXM Group has cash and cash equivalents of approximately $137 million, which includes $33 million of subsidiary cash. During the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Sirius XM Holdings declared a cash dividend each quarter, and paid in cash an aggregate amount of $175 million, of which Liberty received $126 million. On October 6, 2020, Sirius XM Holdings’ board of directors declared a quarterly dividend on its common stock in the amount of $0.014641 per share of common stock payable on November 30, 2020 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on November 6, 2020.

The Liberty Braves common stock is intended to track and reflect the separate economic performance of the businesses, assets and liabilities attributed to the Braves Group. As of September 30, 2020, the Braves Group is comprised primarily of Braves Holdings, which indirectly owns the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball Club (“ANLBC”) and certain assets and liabilities associated with ANLBC’s stadium and mixed use development project and corporate cash. The Formula One Group and the Liberty SiriusXM Group retain intergroup interests in the Braves Group. As of September 30, 2020, the Braves Group has cash and cash equivalents of approximately $213 million, which includes $136 million of subsidiary cash.

The Liberty Formula One common stock is intended to track and reflect the separate economic performance of the businesses, assets and liabilities attributed to the Formula One Group. As of September 30, 2020, the Formula One Group is comprised of all of the businesses, assets and liabilities of Liberty, other than those specifically attributed to the Braves Group or the Liberty SiriusXM Group, including Liberty’s interest in Formula 1, an intergroup interest in the Braves Group, Liberty’s 1% Cash Convertible Notes due 2023 and Liberty’s 2.25% Exchangeable Senior Debentures due 2046. As of September 30, 2020, the Formula One Group has cash and cash equivalents of approximately $1,586 million, which includes $139 million of subsidiary cash.

The number of notional shares representing the intergroup interest in the Braves Group held by the Formula One Group is 6,792,903, representing an 11.3% intergroup interest at September 30, 2020. The number of notional shares representing the intergroup interest in the Braves Group held by the Liberty SiriusXM Group is 2,292,037, representing a 3.8% intergroup interest at September 30, 2020. The number of notional shares representing the intergroup interest in the Formula One Group held by the Liberty SiriusXM Group is 5,271,475, representing a 2.2% intergroup interest at September 30, 2020. The intergroup interests represent quasi-equity interests which are not represented by outstanding shares of common stock; rather, the Formula One Group and Liberty SiriusXM Group have attributed interests in the Braves Group, which are generally stated in terms of a number of shares of Liberty Braves common stock, and the Liberty SiriusXM Group also has an attributed interest in the Formula One Group, which is generally stated in terms of a number of shares of Liberty Formula One common stock. The intergroup interests may be settled, at the discretion of the board of directors of the Company (the “Board of Directors”), through the transfer of newly issued shares of Liberty Braves common stock and Liberty Formula One common stock, respectively, cash and/or other assets to the respective tracking stock group. Accordingly, the Braves Group intergroup interests attributable to the Formula One Group and the Liberty SiriusXM Group are presented as assets of the Formula One Group and Liberty SiriusXM Group, respectively, and are presented as liabilities of the Braves Group. Similarly, the Formula One Group intergroup interest attributable to the Liberty SiriusXM Group is presented as an asset of the Liberty SiriusXM Group and is presented as a liability of the Formula One Group. The offsetting amounts between tracking stock groups are eliminated in consolidation. The intergroup interests will remain outstanding until the redemption of the outstanding interests, at the discretion of the Board of Directors, through a transfer of securities, cash and/or other assets from the Braves Group or Formula One Group to the respective tracking stock group.

On April 22, 2020, the Company’s board of directors authorized management of the Company to cause subscription rights (the “Series C Liberty SiriusXM Rights”) to purchase shares of Series C Liberty SiriusXM common stock, par value $0.01 per share (“LSXMK”), in a rights offering (the “LSXMK rights offering”) to be distributed to holders of Series A Liberty SiriusXM common stock, par value $0.01 per share, Series B Liberty SiriusXM common stock, par value $0.01 per share, and LSXMK. In the LSXMK rights offering, Liberty distributed 0.0939 of a Series C Liberty SiriusXM Right for each share of Series A, Series B or Series C Liberty SiriusXM common stock held as of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on May 13, 2020. Fractional Series C Liberty SiriusXM Rights were rounded up to the nearest whole right. Each whole Series C Liberty SiriusXM Right entitled the holder to purchase, pursuant to the basic subscription privilege, one share of LSXMK at a subscription price of $25.47, which was equal to an approximate 20% discount to the volume weighted average trading price of LSXMK for the 3-day trading period ending on and including May 8, 2020. Each Series C Liberty SiriusXM Right also entitled the holder to subscribe for additional shares of LSXMK that were unsubscribed for in the LSXMK rights offering pursuant to an oversubscription privilege. The LSXMK rights offering commenced on May 18, 2020, which was also the ex-dividend date for the distribution of the Series C Liberty SiriusXM Rights. The LSXMK rights offering expired at 5:00 p.m. New York City time, on June 5, 2020 and was fully subscribed with 29,594,089 shares of LSXMK issued to those rightsholders exercising basic and, if applicable, oversubscription privileges. The proceeds from the LSXMK rights offering, which aggregated approximately $754 million, were used to repay the outstanding balance on the Intergroup Loan and accrued interest. 

See Exhibit 99.1 to this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for unaudited attributed financial information for Liberty's tracking stock groups.