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HITS Daily Double

WARNER MUSIC GROUP PRICES
IPO SHARES

No Date Yet, But Share Info Must Mean They’re Getting Close
Warner Music Group again amended its S1 IPO registration form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, stating that its underwriters intend to sell 32.6 million shares at an estimated price of $22 to $24 per share.

According to the amended filing, 5.43 million shares of the 32.6 million total will come from current shareholders. Also, the underwriters, which include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, Banc of America Securities and Citigroup, will have the option to purchase as many as 4.89 million additional shares from the selling shareholders to cover overallotments.

If the shares sell at the upper end of the estimated price range, WMG could raise as much as $782.4 million from the offering. The 5.43 million shares to be sold by current shareholders represent up to about $130.3 million of that amount, which will go to the selling shareholders, not WMG.

WMG intends to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker WMG.

The company originally filed its S1 with the SEC on March 11, saying it intended to sell shares in an IPO worth up to $750 million. WMG is currently owned by investors including current CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners. The investor group bought WMG from Time Warner in March 2004.

A previous amendment to WMG’s S1 revealed that much of the cash raised by the IPO will go toward the repayment of debt incurred to pay back the new owners’ original investments. In addition, the documents state that a cash dividend of $141.5 million will be paid to the owners of non-IPO stock, while another $73 million will be due to the owners as a management termination fee once the company goes public. Whatever is left will go to WMG for general corporate purposes, an amount estimated at around $7 million.