Fledgling Studio STX Secures Investment from Malone's Liberty Global

By Wayne Ma

HONG KONG -- STX Entertainment, the young Hollywood studio behind the "Bad Moms" franchise, will receive a $35 million investment from John Malone's Liberty Global PLC that values the studio at $1.37 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investment in STX comes ahead of its planned initial public offering in Hong Kong next year, where the studio is seeking to raise about $500 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Liberty Global, based in London, is a sprawling international basket of cable operators that has scooped up assets across the world as it looks to position itself as a media and content-distribution giant.

Mr. Malone's companies have made other content investments over the past few years, which include Liberty Media Corp.'s acquisition of Formula One, and an interest in another Hollywood studio, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. That studio acquired premium cable channel Starz last year. Mr. Malone was the largest voting shareholder in Starz.

Earlier this year, Liberty Global joined with an affiliate of U.S. private-equity firm TPG to launch a global TV production and distribution studio. TPG is one of STX's largest investors.

STX said in a news release early Friday, Hong Kong time, that Bruce Mann, chief programming officer at Liberty, would join its board of directors.

Write to Wayne Ma at wayne.ma@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 30, 2017 15:55 ET (20:55 GMT)

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