Life before Trump: How Steve Bannon helped a Canadian musical company dodge the final curtain
U.S. president’s right-hand man was financial adviser during fallout of Livent bankruptcy
Long before he became Donald Trump's controversial chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon came to the aid of a Canadian musical theatre production company in crisis.
Bannon was an investment banker and his firm went on to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees selling off the Canadian company mired in bankruptcy proceedings and a fraud investigation.
In the 1990s, Toronto-based Livent Inc. rose to the top of North America's live musical theatre business, producing and staging numerous box office hits including The Phantom of the Opera, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Showboat and Ragtime.
Former Livent chief operating officer Dan Brambilla remembers Bannon as the investment banker who, in 1998, handled the deal that brought in new investors — including former Disney president Michael Ovitz — who effectively took control of the company.
"He was great," Brambilla says of Bannon." We had a good time together. He was very professional."
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The Bannon that Brambilla got to know two decades ago wasn't the political operative he is today.
"Not at all," Brambilla says. "He was focused on his job and did his job well…. He was a decent guy. Very smart."
Locked out
But the good times didn't last for Livent. In the fall of 1998, Livent's new management suspected co-founder and creative director Garth Drabinsky of accounting fraud and locked him out.
The RCMP started a criminal investigation. The company's stock was frozen and the embattled company's board sought protection from its creditors in U.S. bankruptcy court.
At the time, Bannon was co-head of the entertainment and media group at SG Cowen Securities (SGC), then a New York City-based investment banking firm.
Documents obtained by The Fifth Estate from the U.S. bankruptcy court in New York City show Bannon in his role at SGC was a key financial adviser who helped Livent's new owners find millions of dollars in interim financing and ultimately a buyer willing to pay millions more for the distressed company.
The court documents also reveal that Livent agreed to pay SGC no less than $1 million US as a "success fee" on the completion of a sale.
Visits to Toronto
In a November 1998 affidavit, Bannon stated that his firm's role was to "assist [Livent] in analyzing its business, operations, properties, financial condition and prospects," as well as "work with [Livent] to develop and maintain a list of parties that might be interested in a transaction. "
SGC was also to "advise [Livent] as to strategy and tactics for negotiating with potential acquirers."
According to the filings, Bannon and his team "made numerous visits to the company's headquarters in Toronto, Canada," noting that "due to the alleged fraud at the company, extensive due diligence has been necessary to enable SGC to understand the company's current financial and operational status fully."
The filings show Bannon logged 280 hours on the file from November 1998 to July 1999 and was directly involved in finding a buyer for Livent.
Among Bannon's SGC colleagues on the file was Scot Vorse, like Bannon an alumnus of Harvard Business School and Goldman Sachs, where both were investment bankers.
Vorse was also a former managing director at Bannon & Co., Bannon's previous private investment banking firm, which he sold to SGC in the summer of 1998, according to the court filings.
More recently, Vorse has written stories for Breitbart News — the right-wing website Bannon chaired before he joined Trump during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign.
Vorse did not respond to requests for comment.
Creditors objected
Bannon and his team had quickly secured $25 million US in what's called debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing so Livent could maintain day-to-day operations while they looked for a buyer.
But according to the court filings, unsecured creditors objected when Bannon's team attempted to bill an additional $500,000 US "success fee."
"Given that SGC is to be handsomely compensated (earning at least $1 million) for its advisory services upon closing of a sale … it now would be inappropriate, and essentially a form of double-counting, for SGC to seek an additional 'success fee' with respect to [Livent's] DIP financing," according to the objection filed in court by the unsecured creditors.
By July 1999, Bannon's team had found a buyer for most of Livent's assets — SFX Entertainment Inc. According to the court filings, the deal was valued by Livent at around $100 million US.
In the end, the creditors and the court approved a $1.75-million US success fee to Bannon's team.
As a Livent stockholder, former COO Brambilla says his return was zero.
"I had a few million dollars' worth of stock but it became worthless overnight," he says.
Filmmaker and gadfly
That same year, in 1999, Bannon would also rack up his second Hollywood executive producer credit for the movie Titus, starring Anthony Hopkins. His first was for 1991's The Indian Runner, directed by Sean Penn.
But it wasn't until his 2004 documentary on Ronald Reagan — In The Face Of Evil: Reagan's War in Word and Deed — that Bannon would begin his run as a right-wing filmmaker and political gadfly.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment from Bannon.
Drabinsky was convicted of fraud in 2009 and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was released on day parole in 2012. He did not respond to a request for comment.
His new musical Sousatzka premieres this month at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto.
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