Univision To File U.S. IPO

(RTTNews) - Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Holdings Inc. intends to pursue an initial public offering in the U.S.

The company filed on Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO of up to $100 million, but that could be a nominal figure used to calculate registration fees.

New York-based Univision intends to apply to have its Class A common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "UVN."

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co. and Deutsche Bank Securities will act as underwriters to the IPO.

Univision operates television and radio networks for the Hispanic audience in the U.S. The company's Spanish-language cable television networks include Univision Network, Galavision and sports broadcaster Univision Deportes.

Univision also has a long-standing strategic relationship with Mexican media giant Grupo Televisa, which acquired a 5 percent equity stake in it for $1.2 billion in 2010. Univision has an exclusive long-term U.S. broadcast and digital rights to Televisa's programming.

For the year ending 2014, Univision generated revenue of $2.9 billion and net income of $0.9 million.

Univision is controlled by a consortium of investors including media billionaire Haim Saban as well as private equity firms Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, TPG and Thomas Lee Partners. The consortium bought Univision for $13.7 billion in 2007, which included debt.

Univision's owners were expected to take the company public this year, thus exiting it.

In June 2014, the Wall Street Journal had reported that the owners of Univision conducted preliminary talks with several media houses, including CBS Corp. (CBS-A, CBS) and Time Warner Inc., (TWX), as they sought to exit the broadcaster. At that time, the owners were said to be seeking more than $20 billion for the company.