Another entity has purchased at least 5% of Lee Enterprises shares.
According to a Securities Exchange Commission filing, BlackRock Inc. purchased about 3.1 million shares on Dec. 31, or 5.5% of shares, in a document filed Friday, the day after Lee posted its first-quarter earnings results.
Lee Enterprises is the Davenport-based parent company of the Quad-City Times, Dispatch-Argus and Muscatine Journal as well as other newspapers across the country, such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Arizona Daily Star. It recently announced the acquisition of Berkshire Hathaway Media Group’s holdings.
BlackRock is the third entity to have purchased at least 5% of Lee’s stock in recent months. Franklin Mutual Advisers LLC, purchased about 4.35 million shares, or 7.4% of the company’s available stock, on Dec. 31, according to an SEC filing dated Jan. 23.
MNG Enterprises Inc., the business name for Alden Global Capital, bought 3.4 million shares for 5.9% of the company’s available stock, the same day Lee announced the Berkshire Hathaway deal, according to SEC filings.
Alden has also recently increased its ownership stake in Tribune newspapers, and through it's majority ownership of Digital First Media, owns more than 50 daily newspapers.
MNG Enterprises wrote in its SEC filing that it intends to "engage in discussions with management and/or the (Lee's) Board of Directors about certain operational and strategic matters, including, but not limited to the recently announced acquisition of Berkshire Hathaway’s newspaper operations and matters pertaining to" Lee's upcoming annual meeting later this month.
Combined, the three entities have purchased 18.8% of Lee’s shares, which were trading for about $1.90 per share Friday afternoon.
