That’s it. Hipgnosis Songs Fund will officially delist from the London Stock Exchange next week as its new owner, Blackstone Group, takes the company’s assets private.
The news marks the end of a marathon bidding war for HSF’s assets, with Blackstone emerging as the winner of the takeover battle with Concord.
On July 8, HSF shareholders voted to support Blackstone US$1.584 billion Bidding for UK listed companies at court meetings and AGMs.
Blackstone is acquiring the Hipgnosis Songs Fund through Lyra Bidco Ltd, an entity fully funded by equity investments in the fund advised by affiliates of Blackstone.
The acquisition was effected through a so-called “court-approved scheme of arrangement” under Part 8 of the UK Companies Act.
In an update to the UK market earlier today (Friday 26 July), Hipgnosis Council and Bidco Council jointly announced that “at a planning tribunal hearing held earlier today, the Crown Court of Guernsey granted A Planning Court order approving the scheme upon which the acquisition is to be carried out.
In other words, the court has approved the acquisition and “the plan” – the acquisition – will take effect on Monday (July 29, 2024).
As a result, HSF will be officially delisted from the London Stock Exchange at 8am London time on Tuesday (July 30).
According to today’s update:
“Applications have been made to the London Stock Exchange to suspend and subsequently cancel the trading access of Hipgnosis shares on the main market and to the Financial Conduct Authority to cancel the listing of Hipgnosis shares on the Official List.
“The suspension of trading in Hipgnosis shares from the official list and the suspension of trading in Hipgnosis shares on the main market is expected to be effective at 7:30 a.m. (London time) on July 29, 2024. Once suspended, trading in Hipgnosis shares is not expected to resume Commencement, and therefore the last day for the registration of trading and transfer of Hipgnosis shares on the London Stock Exchange and the debarment of Hipgnosis shares in CREST will be 26 July 2024.
“It is expected that the delisting of Hipgnosis shares from the Official List and the delisting of Hipgnosis shares from trading on the Main Market will be effective at 8am (London time) upon the commencement of the scheme on 30 July 2024.”
With the acquisition of HSF, Blackstone will own two Hipgnosis-branded song portfolios: Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) and Hipgnosis Songs Capital, also known as Hipgnosis Songs Assets (HSA).
The latter company (HSA) is a joint venture with Leonard Cohen, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Nelly Furtado and Kenny Private owners of assets/interests related to songwriters such as Kenny Chesney.
HSF and HSA continue to work closely with their investment advisor, Hipgnosis Song Management (HSM), run by CEO Ben Katovsky.
It is understood that Blackstone Group has a majority stake in HSM.
Earlier this month, Hipgnosis Song Management announced that founder and chairman Merck Mercuriadis would be leaving the company.
“This is a timely opportunity for me to make a strategic shift in focus and spend more time advocating on behalf of songwriters to ensure they are properly compensated for their work,” said Mercuriadis.
Hipgnosis Songs Fund has built a portfolio that currently consists of 138 catalogs containing the rights and/or revenue streams for more than 40,000 songs.Global music business.
Blackstone said that its total assets under management currently amount to US$1 trillion, covering various fields, and its investment tools are mainly concentrated in private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunism, non-investment grade credit, real estate, etc. field.global music business
