Apex Capital Makes A Bid For Paramount?

According to the terms of Paramount’s merger deal with Skydance Media, it has 45 days to consider other acquisition and merger deals. Based on Reuters data, Apex, a holding company and investor, indicated that it had made a bid for all the shares held by National Amusements, which has the majority stake in Paramount.

This competitive proposal also includes an offer of $23.28 per share, which translates to a 33% premium, for PARA non-voting, class B shares. Should Paramount accept this counter offer, Apex will take on the entertainment company’s $15.8bn debt and pay an additional $400m to Skydance in “break-up” fees.

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Apex will allegedly invest working capital of $10bn to help Paramount realise its business plan. Tatiana Logan, Apex’s trust general counsel, commented:

Paramount and its assets are a national treasure, and we intend to treat them accordingly.

Hours after this news hit the wires, Reuters reported that evaluators of the Paramount offers questioned the validity of the Apex bid. When this report was first published, Reuters had confirmation from Rubenstein Public Relations that the Apex bid was “real”.

In its updated report, Reuters indicated that it could not “independently establish the existence of Apex or its unnamed subsidiaries”. This report, which Business Wire took down at approximately 3pm Eastern Time (ET) on Wednesday 31 July 2024, has subsequently been withdrawn.

Interested parties will closely watch the news to see if anything new surfaces in this regard.