Music fund Hipgnosis to raise £150m for song-buying spree
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Hipgnosis is set to raise a further £150m through a share placing as the music royalties firm continues to cash in on the booming value of song rights.
The London-listed company today said it will raise the funds through the placing of 124m new shares priced at 121p each.
This represents a 2.4 per cent discount to the firm’s closing price yesterday.
Hipgnosis, which generates revenue from placing songs in films and TV shows, said it will use the fresh capital to fund its pipeline of song acquisitions.
It comes after the company raised £75m through a share placing in February and takes its total capital raised to more than £1.1bn.
Hipgnosis, founded by industry veteran Merck Mercuriadis, has pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy since its float in 2018 as it races rivals to secure rights to popular songs.
Earlier this month it bought the rights to Taylor Swift and Lorde songwriter Joel Little. Other deals this year include songs by Metallica, Michael Buble, Shakira and Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham.
Its total portfolio of tracks is now valued at more than $2.2bn.
Hipgnosis is one of a number of companies looking to capitalise on the rising value of music rights. The growth has been driven by the popularity of streaming services, which have helped the industry recover from a slump sparked by widespread piracy.
“This raise gives our public markets investors, historic and new, the only chance for the next 12 months to get access to Hipgnosis’ existing portfolio as well as a pipeline comprising some of the most important and successful songs of all time, at valuations that are highly attractive considering the continued explosive growth of streaming that will magnify future revenues considerably,” said founder Mercuriadis.
N+1 Singer, JP Morgan and RBC Europe Limited are acting as joint bookrunners on the share placing.