Team Telecom Gives Nod to Standard/Tegna Deal Foreign Ownership Request

A foreign-ownership request for Standard General’s proposed $8.6 billion buy of Tegna was OK'd by the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecom Services Sector, said an NTIA letter posted in docket 22-162 Friday. The committee, sometimes called Team Telecom, "has no recommendation at this time to the Commission approving the application and no objection to the Commission granting it,” said the letter. The foreign-ownership request was for Teton Parent, a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, which owns deal participant Cox Media Group and is separately a financier of the transaction. Teton Parent sought permission to be up to 100% foreign owned, but the original petition for declaratory ruling also said 50% of the equity of Standard General is controlled through investment funds in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands, and Apollo’s nonvoting shares in Tegna after the deal is concluded will mean Tegna will be 49.16% foreign owned.