Major League Baseball franchise, the Atlanta Braves, have been transformed into a separate asset-backed stock by ownership group, Liberty Media.

Liberty will redeem their current Braves stock in exchange for ownership of a new company called Atlanta Braves Holdings, with current assets being transferred to the new company.

These stocks will be publicly traded on the NASDAQ as before, but as separate companies.

Liberty have outlined the reclassification process for existing shareholders, with holdings being split between shares in Liberty Media itself, as well as the groups holdings.

The motivation for the change is to prevent financial conflict between the Braves and Liberty’s other investments, including a stake in the broadcaster, Sirius XM and Formula 1.

It is also hoped that the move will streamline the capital structure of each holding.

Commenting on the change, Liberty CEO, Greg Maffei, explained: “We plan to split off the Atlanta Braves into an asset-backed stock to better highlight its strong value.”

“These actions will provide greater investor choice and enable targeted investment and capital-raising through more focused currencies, and preserving optionality with respect to our subsidiary SiriusXM,” he added.

Pending approval from the MLB, auditors and other regulators, Liberty Media expects the split-off to be finalised in early 2023.