FESTIVALS KING TO FLOAT FIRM ON AIM
RELIEF at Music Festivals, the new live music venture from Mean Fiddler founder Vince Power, which will this morning announce its intention to achieve a £10m valuation by floating on the alternative investment market (AIM).
So no more sleepless nights at Merchant Securities, the adviser on the deal, after Power managed to raise the £6.5m needed for the IPO to go ahead, part of which was spent on buying out the majority shareholders in the “very profitable” Spanish festival Benicassim, of which Power previously held 22 per cent.
After a fraught few weeks while Music Festivals renegotiated the terms of the deal with the Benicassim shareholders to offer a part-cash, part-loan note, rather than 100 per cent cash, it was signed late yesterday, prompting “sighs of relief”.
The firm plans to start trading on 23 June.
Merchant Securities paid tribute to Power’s “skill in attracting the headline acts”, with Bob Dylan, Tiny Tempah, Prince and Morrissey among the big names booked for Music Festivals’ live events this summer.
“Once the firm is listed and people can experience the festivals, there will be a rush of interest from investors,” added the Merchant source, hinting that Music Festivals already has the rights to two further UK festivals to add to its portfolio of Hop Farm, Benicassim and Gaelic festival The Feis, which it will announce “as the acts are signed up”. Watch this space…
BANKERS’ OSCARS
TO THE Guildhall for the Oscars of the investment banking world, the results of the Thomson Reuters Extel Survey hosted by Lord Michael Grade, with presenters including Risk Capital Partners chairman Luke Johnson and Ariadne Capital chief executive Julie Meyer.
More than 400 awards were handed out to the buy-side, sell-side and corporate communities that came out on top in the 38th annual survey, with UBS named as the Leading Pan-European Brokerage Firm for Equity and Equity-Linked Research and JP Morgan winning Leading Pan-European Fund Management Firm.
The top individual honour went to Andrew Wood from Sanford C Bernstein (pictured right), who was crowned as Leading Pan-European Individual Equity Analyst.
Och-Ziff Capital Partners beat GLG and Citadel Investment to win Lead Pan-European Hedge Fund, while on the small-caps end of the market, Investec Securities is this year’s Leading Brokerage Firm for UK Small Caps and Oriel Securities’ Richard Rose was named Leading UK Small Caps Analyst.
Elsewhere at the awards, BASF was named Leading Pan-European Company for Investor Relations; Mark Wallis of Bank of America Merrill Lynch was awarded Leading Pan-European Equity Specialist Sales Person; and Asif Jeevanjee of JP Morgan Asset Management won Leading Pan-European Fund Management Individual.
RACE FOR LIFE
CALLING all City supporters: City A.M’s team of Lillian Swatton, Sophie Green, Sophie Evans and Nzima Ndangana are taking part in the 5k Race for Life on Sunday 12 June at Moorgate to raise money for Cancer Research UK. To sponsor the team, please see www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/sophiegreen0501