CBS Outdoor to Start Trading

CBS Outdoor Americas Inc. will start trading Friday as a stand-alone company, after pricing Thursday night at the top of its expected range.

The billboard-advertising company offered 20 million shares at $28 each in its initial public offering. The initial range was from $26 to $28 a share.

The company is splitting off from CBS Corp., as the media giant tries to lessen its reliance on ad dollars for its revenue. The portion of CBS's revenue coming from advertising will fall to between 52% and 54% after the divestiture from 58% at the end of 2013.

Following Friday's IPO, CBS will continue to own about 83% of CBS Outdoor, but plans to divest the rest of its stake later this year.

After CBS fully exits the company, CBS Outdoor plans to covert to a real-estate investment trust. Such entities don't pay corporate income taxes on taxable income they distribute to shareholders, and must pay out at least 90% of taxable income to qualify.

For 2013, CBS Outdoor said its earnings rose 27% to $143.5 million on a slight increase in revenue to $1.29 billion.

Goldman, Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Chase Co., and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint book-running managers.

Write to Ben Fox Rubin at [e-mail]

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