An investor group including U.S. billionaire Haim Saban and four private equity firms submitted an offer for Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications Inc. while the entry of a rival suitor remained unclear, sources familiar with the deal said Wednesday.
Univision shares dropped 5 percent in early trade amid concerns about the progress and price of the other offer.
Private equity firms Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Saban turned in their bid early Wednesday as the auction deadline passed, a source close to the deal said.
Univision, which analysts have said could fetch around $12 billion, could not immediately be reached for comment.
A competing group, including Mexican broadcaster Televisa and Venezuelan investor Gustavo Cisneros, has not submitted a bid yet, a source involved with the group said Wednesday, and is still studying the company.
“Televisa and their private equity partners are determining valuation,” the source said. Other members of that group are Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Cascade Investments.
Carlyle Group was a member of the consortium but dropped out at the last minute, sources said.
Bidding for Univision was close to the company’s current stock price of about $35 per share, which would value the deal at about $11 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. Univision had been expected to seek a price closer to $40 per share, valuing the company at more than $12 billion.
Televisa and Cisneros are already major Univision shareholders and have eyed increasing their stake for years.
Among the factors being sorted out from the Televisa group are the regulatory issues they may face by acquiring a stake in Univision. A source involved with the other group said that Televisa is expected to submit an offer at some point.
Univision, the No. 1 Hispanic media company in the United States, said in February it was considering a sale. The prospect drew interest from the world’s largest media companies attracted by the double-digit growth in advertising dollars seen in the U.S. Hispanic market.
But an expected high price tag and potential regulatory hurdles kept U.S.-based broadcasters out of the running and quickly whittled a Univision deal down to a two-horse race.
People close to the sale process have not ruled out the idea that a deal could be too complicated to carry out due to the media ties between Univision and the prospective bidders.
Televisa supplies the bulk of soap opera-like novelas and other programs to Univision that have grown its audience to the U.S. television big leagues, ranking it competitively with English-language broadcasters like CBS, ABC , NBC and Fox.
But Televisa has made rumblings recently that it might explore other opportunities in the U.S. market, presumably with a second-tier broadcast partner, in the event its Univision bid doesn’t come to fruition.
