Six years after going public on the London Stock exchange, a majority of Hipgnosis Songs Fund shareholders voted on Monday (July 8) to sell the fund to Blackstone for $1.6 billion, according to a regulatory filing.
According to the filing, 99.97% of shares voted voting in favor of selling to the private equity giant–59.21% of eligible voting shares participated in the vote.
The vote ends a roller coaster year for shareholders and the fund’s board, which initiated the search for external buyers to appease investors who, frustrated by the fund’s low stock price and the cancellation of its dividend, voted against continuation last September.
The decision by a majority of Hipgnosis investors to sell to private equity follows a similar decision by Round Hill Music Royalty Fund investors, who voted to sell to Concord Music Group for $469 million last September. Both funds provided pure-play investment in music copyrights, and both were taken private in under seven years.
The trillion-dollar global investment giant initially became involved with Hipgnosis in 2021 when senior managing director at Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Qasim Abbas launched a private acquisition fund with HSF founder Merck Mercuriadis. By acquiring Hipgnosis Songs Fund’s portfolio of some 65,000 songs, Blackstone owns all of Hipgnosis, including the private music assets in Hipgnosis Songs Assets and Hipgnosis Song Management, the investment advisor to both portfolios.
The collection of rights held by HSF includes songs by Neil Young, Journey, Lindsey Buckingham and Blondie, and many songwriter and producer’s shares of royalty rights for songs performed by Justin Bieber and others.
Blackstone’s offer awards investors $1.31 per share and values HSF’s share capital at a total of $1.584 billion.
In addition to the Hipgnosis companies, which Blackstone owns through its Tactical Opportunities fund, Blackstone also owns the music rights organization SESAC and MNRK Music Group.
