Report: Soros Fund in the Running to Buy Vice

Report: Soros Fund in the Running to Buy Vice

The Soros Fund Management is one of the senior lenders in the running to buy Vice Media for $400 million:

Vice Media is nearing a deal for senior lenders including Fortress Investment Group and Soros Fund Management to acquire the troubled media company out of bankruptcy at a valuation of around $400 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Nearly every Vice stockholder—including backers such as private-equity firm TPG Group, Sixth Street Partners and media mogul James Murdoch —would be wiped out under the proposed reorganization, the people familiar with the matter said. Outstanding debts held by TPG and Sixth Street would also be impaired as part of the plan, the people said. The Murdoch family is a major shareholder in Journal parent News Corp.

The planned sale of the company to its lenders would value Vice at around $400 million including debt, the people said, a steep drop from its peak valuation of $5.7 billion in 2017. The final purchase price could also change as part of negotiations between the company and the lender group, the people said.

George Soros founded the Soros Fund Management in 1970. It is “the principal asset manager for the Open Society Foundations.”

In 2011, Soros made it a family office:

Months later, citing new “regulations recently announced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission” that would “require certain private investment advisers to register with the SEC by March 2012,” George Soros announced that Soros Fund Management would be closing to outside investors and becoming a “family office,” which would allow them to use the “exception” to the regulation. In fact, Soros Fund Management had “effectively operated as a family office since 2000” in order to take advantage of regulatory exemptions. With the new regulations, Soros Fund Management would officially become a family fund, existing only to manage the investments of George Soros and his family. The “family office” designation allowed Soros Fund Management to “skirt two of the most significant regulations facing hedge funds under the Dodd-Frank Act financial regulatory overhaul,” both relating to registration and disclosure obligations.

If Fortress takes over Vice, the company will “likely” not change much. Fortress will “retain current management” and “find a role for Vice co-founder Shane Smith,” who serves as CEO.

But the proposed reorganization would wipe out almost every Vice stockholder. Those include James Murdoch.

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