|
Financially-interested watchers of the music business will know all about Spotify’s recent flotation on the New York Stock Exchange – and its eye-catching NYSE ticker, SPOT.
Over in London, however, there’s about to be another successful flotation in music, complete with another attention-grabbing fiscal ticker – SONG.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd, the vehicle set up by veteran artist manager Merck Mercuriadis, has successfully raised over £200m ($262m), MBW has learned – and will now IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in the coming weeks.
The company has today (June 29) told investors that it had exceeded its target of raising gross proceeds of £200m due to excess demand.
It is now anticipated that the company will be the biggest IPO of the year on the LSE, and the only publicly-listed pureplay music company on the exchange.
What’s Hipgnosis Songs Fund Ltd going to spend the money on? Music, of course.
In a recently filed, updated prospectus, the company noted that it intended to ‘manage the songs it acquires with the objective of constructing a high quality and diversified portfolio’.
It will identify these songs through its ‘Investment Adviser’ – which is, essentially, Mercuriadis – plus an Advisory Board made up of people well-known in music biz circles.
These advisers, MBW has learned, include funk legend Nile Rodgers, as well as US-based artist manager Ian Montone and Lava Records founder Jason Flom.
|
