MGM Studios creditors to gain seats on new board

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.’s new board will include three directors from the creditors that helped restructure the company, according to bankruptcy court papers that leaves two directors unnamed - reports Business Week.

Patrick H. Daugherty, a partner at Highland Capital Management LP; Christopher Pucillo, founder of Solus Alternative Asset Management LP; and Kevin Ulrich, chief executive officer of Anchorage Capital Group LLC, will join the nine-member board, according to documents filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

Highland, Solus and Anchorage were part of the creditors’ committee that helped negotiate Los Angeles-based MGM’s restructuring, along with Davidson Kempner Capital Management LLC, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Invesco Inc.

Jason O. Hirschhorn, recently co-president of social networking company MySpace, and Frederic G. Reynolds, former chief financial officer of CBS Corp., also were named as directors.

MGM, distributor of the James Bond and Rocky movies reorganizing in Chapter 11, previously said that Gary Barber, founder of Spyglass Entertainment Group Inc., and his partner Roger Birnbaum would run MGM after its bankruptcy. They will serve as directors and co-chief executive officers, according to the court papers.

Billionaire Carl Icahn will designate one of the nine directors after agreeing to support the plan following MGM’s rejection of a takeover bid from Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., MGM has said.

MGM, whose 4,000-title film and television library included “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone With the Wind,” has a co- production deal with Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. on a planned movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel “The Hobbit.”

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