Nexstar to Sell Stations to Tegna, Scripps for $1.32 Billion

(Bloomberg) -- Nexstar Media Group Inc. agreed to sell 19 television stations for $1.32 billion in cash, clearing the way for its $4.1 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co.

Tegna Inc. will pay $740 million for 11 stations in eight markets, and E.W. Scripps Co. will pay $580 million for eight stations in seven markets, Nexstar said Wednesday. Nexstar said it’s in “active negotiations” to divest two more stations, in Indianapolis.

Apollo Global Management was among the other bidders considering the stations, people familiar with the matter have said.

Nexstar, based in Irving, Texas, agreed to unload the stations in order to get regulatory clearance for the Tribune deal. That transaction is poised to create a new king of local TV, with Nexstar unseating Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. The Tribune deal should close late in the third quarter, Nexstar Chief Executive Officer Perry Sook said in a statement.

Buyback Option

The Scripps purchase includes $75 million for WPIX, a CW affiliate in the nation’s largest media market, New York. Scripps granted Nexstar an option to buy that station back between March 31, 2020, and the end of 2021.

Other markets where Scripps is buying stations include Phoenix, Miami, Salt Lake City and Norfolk, Virginia.

“These stations allow us to rebalance our portfolio with meaningful assets -- at an efficient price ahead of a robust political advertising season,” Scripps CEO Adam Symson said in a statement.

Tegna also cited gaining more advertising connected to the 2020 presidential election as a benefit of the deal. It’s adding stations in battleground-state markets including Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Des Moines, Iowa.

Abandoned Attempt

Last year, Sinclair was forced to abandon its own $3.9 billion takeover attempt for Tribune after U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai questioned the legality of a plan to sell TV stations to meet ownership limits. Nexstar had been interested in Tribune last year before Sinclair had agreed to buy it.

The wave of TV-industry consolidation also includes Gray Television Inc.’s deal to buy Raycom Media Inc. for $3.65 billion last year. And Apollo agreed in February to buy the majority stake in Cox Enterprises Inc.’s television broadcasters, transforming the private equity giant into a key player in local TV with 13 stations from Florida to Seattle.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. also looked at the Nexstar stations, but it decided to focus instead on getting better terms on the deals it has with affiliate stations, a person familiar with the matter said.

Tegna shares fell as much as 4.2 percent, the most since Feb. 1, in New York trading, while Scripps rose modestly. Nexstar gained as much as 1.5 percent, and Tribune was about unchanged.

Nexstar was advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch on the sale, while JPMorgan and Greenhill & Co. advised Tegna. Methuselah Advisors and Morgan Stanley worked with Scripps, with Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo leading the financing.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nabila Ahmed in New York at nahmed54@bloomberg.net;Anousha Sakoui in Los Angeles at asakoui@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, ;Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III

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