Paramount Skydance has asked the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve foreign investments backing its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.
Once merged, Paramount said the company will be 49.5% owned by foreign investors, with around 38.5% of the equity in the new company held by a trio of Middle Eastern funds.
In an FCC filing, the media giant said Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will have a 15.1% equity stake; the United Arab Emirates’ sovereign wealth fund will own 12.8% equity; and the Qatar Investment Authority will own 10.6% equity.
Paramount has previously said foreign investors backing its WBD takeover will not have board seats or voting shares.
The filing also said that the Ellison family, along with RedBird Capital Partners, will continue to hold the largest equity stake in the merged business and will continue to have control over shares with 100% voting power.
A Paramount spokesperson said the filing was completely standard for investments like this one at issue and is not a condition to closing Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. FCC rules govern foreign investments in U.S. television broadcasting.
The company said the greenlight would reduce barriers to further investment and enable Paramount to seek additional capital from non-U.S. investors.
FCC chair Brendan Carr told Reuters that the competition's role in the Paramount Warner deal would be minor.
"What we've seen so far is that the foreign ownership they're taking would qualify, under our rules as bona fide debt," Carr said.
This comes after Warner Bros shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of the US$111 billion Paramount takeover.
