Saudi Arabia Has Bought $500 Million Stake in Live Nation

Shares of Live Nation were soaring almost 10% on Monday after Wall Street learned that Saudi Arabia had bought a $500 million stake in the company.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund bought a 5.7% stake in the American events company that is the parent company for Ticketmaster.

This investment makes the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund the third-largest shareholder in Live Nation after Liberty Media Corp and Vanguard Group.

The stake is worth about $518 million based on the company’s current stock price, comprises 12,337,569 shares, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

Live Nation has been deeply impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and has seen revenues vanish. The company has recently implemented a coronavirus refund plan for customers.

“We understand the challenges that everyone is going through right now, we don’t want tickets to be a part of that challenge,” President Joe Berchtold said. “We’ve had over 50,000 shows globally impacted. It’s more than we’ve had in the last 10 years combined – in one month. So, we’ve had to just go through the process and show-by-show.”

It will take time for refunds to make it to customers who purchased tickets from Live Nation or its subsidiary Ticketmaster.

“Ticketmaster is a platform. So, it had to go get cash back from the venues where it turned that money over to,” Berchtold explained. “Thus far, we already refunded over 30,000 shows, returned over $400 million to fans and what we wanted to do is come out with a very specific plan that we were clear.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV) and have not been compensated for this article.