Liberty Media To Recapitalize Into 3 Tracking Stock Groups

Liberty Media Corporation said Thursday its board has approved a proposal to recapitalize into three tracking stock groups. The company will create the tracking stocks Liberty Braves Group, Liberty Media Group and Liberty Sirius Group, and have the subscription rights to the Liberty Braves Group distributed following their creation. Holders of Liberty's Series A, B and C common stock will receive shares of the corresponding tracker stock for each Liberty share owned. "We expect this recapitalization to highlight each tracking stock group's operations, and the financial performance of its attributed assets, provide greater investor choice, and enable targeted capital raising while maintaining an optimal capital structure for Liberty," Chief Executive Greg Maffei said in a statement. The company is expecting to complete the creation of the new stocks in the first half of 2016 and will provide further details at an investor meeting later Thursday. Liberty Class A stock was not yet active in premarket trade, but is up 16% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 0.8%.