- Hipgnosis owns the back catalogs of Blondie and Red Hot Chili Peppers
- The music rights investor previously received a £1.1bn offer from Concord Music.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund has accepted a new £1.26bn takeover bid from private equity group Blackstone.
The music rights investor, owner of the back catalogs of Blondie, Shakira and Red Hot Chili Peppers, said he accepted a proposal of $1.30 (£1.04) per share from Blackstone.
It represents a 48 per cent premium to Hipgnosis’s closing share price on April 17 before Concord Music, owner of the Round Hill Music Royalty Fund, made a £1.1bn bid for the company.
Highest note: Hipgnosis owns the back catalog of rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose lead singer is Anthony Kiedis (pictured)
Blackstone arrived a few days later with an offer of 1.2 billion pounds, after having had Three lower offers rejected, according to Sky News.
On the advice of investment bank Singer Capital Markets, Hipgnosis bosses unanimously backed Blackstone’s latest proposal as “fair and reasonable.”
Robert Naylor, chairman of Hipgnosis, said: “We are delighted that, following the competing interests in the acquisition of Hipgnosis, our investors now have the opportunity to immediately realize their participation at a higher premium.”
Qasim Abbas, senior managing director at Blackstone, said the offer “is the result of extensive discussions and negotiations with the board and provides shareholders with the certainty of cash today.”
The fight to buy Hipgnosis comes after a difficult period for the company, which has endured investor revolts, disputes with co-founder Merck Mercuriadis and a declining portfolio valuation.
Since Mercuriadis and Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers founded Hipgnosis in 2018, the firm has spent more than £2bn buying songs and songwriters’ catalogues.
It earns royalties every time a song to which it owns the rights is played, but the value of its catalogs has declined significantly over the past two years as interest rate increases make other income-generating asset classes, such as securities, more attractive. bonuses.
As a result, the group’s share price almost halved between September 2022 before soaring after Concord made its offer.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund Shares They rose 2.3 per cent to 106.2 pence on Monday morning, compared with their initial public offering price of 100 pence.
London-listed companies are currently experiencing a flurry of takeover bids due to their perceived undervaluation and the depreciation of the pound since the Brexit referendum.
Last week, cybersecurity specialist Darktrace accepted a £4.3bn bid from Thoma Bravo, while mining giant BHP pounced on smaller rival Anglo American with a blockbuster £31bn bid.
