Leafs, Raptors no longer for sale: reports
Posted November 25, 2011 9:22 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan will not sell its stake in MLSE, according to multiple reports.
On Friday, the Globe and Mail reported that although it had received “numerous” offers, Teachers would not be selling its share in the parent of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors. The Toronto Star also reported that the plan had ended its eight-month long effort to sell its stake.
View the story “Teachers not selling MLSE stake” on Storify]
Teachers owns a 79.5-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. Reports have pegged the Teachers’ stake at $1.5 billion.
For the past eight months, the pension plan has been “exploring their options” for selling its share of the company.
Earlier this year, Teachers acquired a stake previously held by TD Capital Group. Terms of the deal for the bank’s roughly 13.5-per-cent stake were not disclosed.
Sportsnet reported recently that Providence Equity Partners, an American private equity firm, approached Wayne Gretzky about purchasing a majority stake in MLSE.
Providence Equity Partners is the company behind the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network. MLSE also owns Toronto FC of Major League Soccer, the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, the Air Canada Centre as well as several media assets, including Leafs TV and NBA TV.
