Nexstar wants to push its market value to $1 billion,...
Nexstar wants to push its market value to $1 billion, CEO Perry Sook told analysts Tuesday. “Our vision would be to build a company in excess of a billion dollars in revenue and capitalize it properly. And we think if…
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do so … that would yield a billion dollar market cap.” The company is about “70 percent there,” factoring in a spate of station acquisitions it has yet to close, Sook said. Nexstar may continue to add stations to its portfolio to grow further, he said. “I'm not so much concerned with how big we are, but with how valuable we can be,” he said. “We'll never get out over our skis, just for the sake of scale.” The company is looking at more acquisition opportunities now, he said. “We have a couple of books on our desk. At this point we're evaluating.” The bar for agreeing to buy new stations is high, he said. “I wouldn’t want to handicap the outcome,” he said. Asked about the FCC’s incentive spectrum auction, Sook said Nexstar will approach it with an open mind “and look at the value proposition.” However, given the amount of money the government is seeking to raise in the auction, it may be hard for Nexstar to justify selling its spectrum, he said. “I think everyone will look at it and take their measure of it and decide if there is value creation to do that.” Most broadcast licensees that are making money from their TV assets would be “hard pressed for selling their spectrum into the auction and for all intents and purposes going out of business,” he said. Q3 sales at Nexstar increased 20 percent from a year earlier to $89.9 million. Net income of $9.5 million reversed a year-ago net loss of $6.5 million. The increase in profit was a result of higher revenue and lower interest expense. Nexstar shares increased 8 percent to $11.56 Tuesday, leaving its market capitalization at $335.4 million.