Shari Redstone launches auction of Paramount Global’s holding company: sources

Shari Redstone is launching a formal auction of National Amusements, the holding company that controls struggling media giant Paramount Global, The Post has learned.

BDT Capital Partners, the bankers for Redstone, the 69-year-old daughter of late media baron Sumner Redstone, have begun circulating nondisclosure agreements to private-equity firms to view National Amusements’ financials — widening the search for prospective bidders which thus far have included Warner Bros. Discovery, according to sources close to the situation.

Redstone is looking for a steep markup for National Amusements, which has a 10% stake in Paramount Global and controls 77% of its voting shares — as much as 50% of its market value, according to a source briefed on the process.

“I think she would prefer to sell all of it instead of just the holding company,” a source close to Redstone said, noting that talks to sell Paramount Global itself haven’t yet borne fruit. “But there might not be a bid out there.”

Paramount Global — whose movie studio is behind the “Mission: Impossible” and “Transformers” franchises, and also owns CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV — ended Wednesday with a market capitalization of $9.4 billion, giving National Amusements’ shares in the company a face value just shy of $1 billion.

The stake could be worth considerably more given the voting shares’ control over Paramount. In addition, National Amusements owns a handful of money-losing movie-theater chains including Showcase Cinemas, Multiplex Cinemas and Cinema de lux.