Seagram Sells Its Last Time Warner Shares

NEW YORK —  Seagram Co. sold its remaining 11.8 million shares of Time Warner Inc. for $914.5 million, which analysts expect will be used to help finance its planned $10.6-billion purchase of PolyGram.

Seagram made a profit of about $463.7 million by selling the shares to investment firm Goldman, Sachs & Co. The stock is the last of the 57 million Time Warner shares that Seagram bought between 1993 and 1995 as Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. sought to enter Hollywood. Seagram sold the balance in two separate transactions over the last year.

Bronfman said last week that the Canadian beverage and entertainment company would sell the shares and its juice maker Tropicana Products Inc. to help fund the $59-a-share cash purchase of PolyGram, the world’s largest music company. The move comes with Time Warner stock near its all-time high after rising about 61% the last year.

“It’s an opportune time to sell since the stock doesn’t have a strategic value for Seagram, the price has been pretty high, and they need the cash to complete the PolyGram purchase,” said Harold Vogel, analyst at Cowen & Co. in New York.

Time Warner shares fell $1.06 to close at $78.56 on the New York Stock Exchange. Seagram said the sale will generate after-tax proceeds of more than $725 million.

Seagram last May sold 30 million Time Warner shares, or more than half its stake, for $1.39 billion. The company sold another 15 million in February for about $965.6 million, leaving it with the 11.8 million shares, or less than 2% of New York-based Time Warner’s shares outstanding.

Bronfman began buying the shares in 1993 as a way to enter the film and entertainment business. After amassing 56.8 million shares, Bronfman changed course and instead bought 80% of MCA Inc. and its Universal Studios unit for $5.7 billion in 1995.