Icahn Increases Stake in Lions Gate

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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has increased his stake in Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. to 15.6 percent after buying more than 1.3 million shares in recent weeks.

Icahn, the independent film studio and distributor’s second-largest shareholder, reported that companies he controls bought the shares in May and June for between $5.37 and $5.46 per share, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings late Friday. Icahn formerly controlled 14.5 percent of shares.

Lions Gate is based in Vancouver, Canada but has most of its operations in Santa Monica.

This spring the activist investor attempted to gain greater leverage over the company through a tender offer to bondholders. That only yielded enough convertible bonds that could be converted into 130,382 shares.

To counter Icahn’s efforts, Lions Gate persuaded two big bondholders not to tender their bonds by giving them new, improved bonds from the company.

Lions Gate last week reported a loss of $163 million on revenue of $1.47 billion for its fiscal year ended March 31, in large part due to disappointing feature releases in the fiscal second and third quarters.

Lions Gate shares were up 16 cents, or 3 percent, to $5.62 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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