George Lucas has no plans to sell his $2.02 billion stake in Walt Disney Co., his spokeswoman said, following a regulatory filing by the company that allows the “Star Wars” creator to divest the stock at his discretion.
Lucas, 68, holds 37.1 million shares of Burbank, California-based Disney, a 2.1 percent stake, according to a registration yesterday by the film, TV and theme-park company. Disney agreed to register the stock as part of its accord to purchase the filmmaker’s Lucasfilm Ltd. The deal was completed on Dec. 21.
“George Lucas currently has no plans to sell his Disney stock,” Lynne Hale, a spokeswoman for Lucasfilm, said in an e-mail. “This was a required filing in conjunction with the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney.”
Disney was little changed in extended trading yesterday after the filing. The stock gained 0.4 percent to $54.52 at the close in New York and has advanced 9.5 percent this year.
The company bought Lucas’s “Star Wars” empire for stock and a cash payment of $2.21 billion to develop a new film series based on the sci-fi adventure movies. Robert Iger, Disney’s chairman and chief executive officer, said this week the world’s largest entertainment company also planned two films based on characters from the series.
With the sale of his company, Lucas became the second- largest non-institutional shareholder in Disney, behind the trust of late Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who sold Pixar to Disney in 2006.