Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE:LGF) stock points to a brighter start to Thursday after releasing its first-quarter financial results highlighting talks over a possible spinoff or sale of its studio arm, and/or Starz streaming service.
The company reported revenue of $908.6 million in the period ended June 30, up 2% year-over-year and ahead of Street estimates of $893 million. The company’s loss came out at $0.31 per share, compared to $0.53 a year earlier and an expected loss of $0.45.
Lionsgate’s media network revenue was flat at $381.1 million, while studio business (which includes motion picture and television production segments) revenue grew 46% year-over-year to $406.5 million.
Underlying all of this is a September 30 deadline to announce a possible spinoff of its studio business into a separate public company.
A previous SEC Form 10 filing revealed the potential corporate structure of the separated studio and media networks businesses, which would be relaunched as New Lionsgate and New Starz.
Lions Gate’s Class A shares were up 2.8% in early dealing changing hands at $7.75.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel