Endeavor public offering plans stall

Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc., the parent company of powerhouse booking agency WME Entertainment, has postponed its initial public offering (IPO), which was due to take place later this year.

IQ understands from a well-placed source that the IPO struggled to attract sufficient investor attention.

The company was due to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange as early as today, under the symbol EDR. Endeavor had originally planned to go public in May, before pushing it back to after the summer.

“Endeavor will continue to evaluate the timing for the proposed offering as market conditions develop,” reads a statement released by the company.

In a regulatory filing posted on Thursday morning with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company proposed the sale of 17 million shares at a maximum share offering of $27, totalling a proposed maximum offering price of almost $466m.

“Endeavor will continue to evaluate the timing for the proposed offering as market conditions develop”

The valuation constitutes a significant decrease from that posted a week earlier. According to last week’s filing, the agency giant believed it could have raised as much as $712 million with its flotation, selling just over 22m shares at $27 a pop.

The IPO would have made Endeavor the first major Hollywood agency to trade publicly, with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), United Talent Agency (UTA) and International Creative Management (ICM Partners) and Paradigm all operating as private businesses.

The company would have joined stock market-listed live entertainment companies including Live Nation, CTS Eventim, Deutsche Entertainment AG, Madison Square Garden Company, Eventbrite and T4T Entertainment, as well as eBay’s StubHub and Vivendi’s live businesses.

In addition to WME, whose music roster includes Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars, Solange, Vince Staples and Macklemore, IMG and UFC, Endeavor’s business comprises production arm Endeavor Content, the Miss Universe pageant, comedy management company Dixon Talent and ad agency Droga5, among others.

IQ has contacted WME for comment.

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