Live Nation sells off theaters

posted by Michael Zoldessy on January 29, 2008 at 9:55 am

Live Nation announced a sale of its North American theater business to Key Brand Entertainment. However, they didn’t let go of all their historic theaters.

The company will retain its lease for the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., which is increasingly being utilized as a music venue and The Boyd Theatre in Philadelphia, a wholly-owned, non-operational venue. As previously disclosed, Live Nation will also retain its United Kingdom theatrical assets, which include 17 theatres, the Hilton Theatre in New York City and the Boston Opera House. Together, on a pro forma basis, the retained theatrical assets generated $143.2 million of revenue, $26.0 million of Adjusted OIBDAN and $0.2 million of operating income, including $9.8 million of loss on sale of operating assets for the twelve months ended September 30, 2007.

With the sale of the remainder of its North American theatrical business, Live Nation has sold assets with a total gross sale price of over $260 million since 2006. These divestitures are part of the company’s strategy to focus on its core music business by divesting non-music or other non-core assets and utilizing the proceeds from those asset sales to reinvest in music-related assets. In addition to the North American theatrical business, the company has sold substantially all of its sports representation businesses, its San Francisco office building and a number of other non-core United Kingdom and United States venues. The company currently expects to continue to divest non-core/non-music related businesses.

Read the full press release here.