As Lionsgate faces a stepped-up battle with corporate raider Carl Icahn, the Vancouver-based company disclosed that last year it sought to shift its place of incorporation stateside.

Lionsgate, the top executives of which are based in Santa Monica, said in an SEC filing on Friday that it applied last April to the B.C. Securities Commission to cease being a ‘reporting issuer’ in Canada on grounds that its stock is no longer listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Qualifying as an American company, especially in corporate-friendly states like Deleware, would also have advantages, the company said.

The indie studio has already incorporated its Lionsgate Films division in Delaware, even though its principal base of business is in Santa Monica.

Lionsgate on Friday also recommended shareholders reject an unsolicited $6-a-share tender offer from The Icahn Group as ‘financially inadequate and coercive.’

After Icahn opposed the studio’s bid to move south with his own submission to the BCSC, Lionsgate withdrew its application.

A Lionsgate spokesman on Friday declined to comment on his company’s incorporation status beyond its latest SEC filing.

In a separate March 1 SEC filing, Icahn said Lionsgate vice-chairman Michael Burns referred to possible plans to leave Canada during recent negotiations.

Icahn said Lionsgate aimed to exit Canada to ‘implement and maintain’ anti-takeover defenses in the U.S. where shareholders have less latitude than north of the border to call special meetings or thwart ‘poison pill’ shareholder rights plans.

Exiting Canada would incur penalties for Lionsgate as it would have to repay subsidies it received for shooting film and TV projects in Canada.