Movie producer RHI hoping to lure investors in stock sale

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A relative rarity was expected on Wall Street this afternoon: an initial public stock offering from a movie producer.

RHI Entertainment Inc., a well-known name in made-for-TV movies and miniseries, was hoping to price an offering of 12.5 million shares between $16 and $18 apiece.

RHI, based in New York, is the vehicle for the Halmi family -- legendary producer Robert Halmi Sr. and son Robert Jr. RHI was a public firm in the early 1990s until it was bought out by Hallmark Cards in 1994. In January 2006 Robert Halmi Jr. and other investors bought the company back from Hallmark. Robert Jr. now heads the business.

RHI, with the Halmis still in charge while under Hallmark’s wing, claimed nearly half the market for TV miniseries from 2000 to 2007, including ‘Arabian Nights,’ ‘Dinotopia’ and last year’s ‘Tin Man’ on the Sci-Fi channel. Its made-for-TV flicks have included ‘Moby Dick’ and ‘Killer Wave.’

The company’s basic pitch to investors is that it can make movies for relatively low price tags and reap a long-term profit stream from its expanding content library.

But the Halmis’ greatest need at the moment is to cut the debt load incurred in buying the firm back from Hallmark. That’s where most of the money raised in the IPO would go: debt reduction. And that usually doesn’t make for a thrilling pitch to potential stock investors.

JPMorgan Securities and Banc of America Securities are managing the IPO.