Merck Mercuriadis’ gargantuan bet on music IP continues.
Hot on the heels of an enormous acquisition of Timbaland’s catalog, Hipgnosis Songs is hitting you with another big announcement. The music IP aggregation play has now rallied another $295 million (£231 million), specifically through an expanded offering of shares.
The raise brings Hipgnosis’ funding tranche to a beastly $800 million, all of which is being used to fund the world’s largest music rights shopping spree.
In a statement, Hipgnosis Song Funds Limited founder Merck Mercuriadis trotted out his familiar catchphrase, stating that songs are ‘better than gold or oil’ in terms of their financial stability and growth prospects. “They are the currency that makes the world go round,” Mercuriadis stated. “They are predictable and reliable and they are better than gold or oil. We have lined up the finest available song catalogs and will be deploying immediately.”
The London-based raise came via 231,000,000 C Shares, all of which were priced at £100 a pop. The quick math yields the £231 million total. Nplus1 Singer Advisory LLP and J.P. Morgan Securities PLC facilitated the placements. The raise comes alongside a hyper-growing music industry, with IP — including publishing assets — quickly spiking in value. That certainly made the offering easier, though the raise is doubly impressive in the shaky, pre-Brexit British market.
Hipgnosis indicated that the funds were raised “by way of the Initial Placing, Offer for Subscription and Intermediaries Offer of C Shares”.
Of course, none of this is bad news for anyone with a valuable catalog, including Timbaland. Hipgnosis is reportedly offering insane multiples over net publishers share (NPS), all predicated on the bet that long-term valuations will ultimately exceed those offers. Hipgnosis seems to be easily beating other bids from competing IP aggregators, though this isn’t a game for conservative (or even moderately aggressive) players.
Now, that extreme bullishness is reportedly entering brand-new territory, with Mercuriadis & Co. preparing to purchase entire publishing companies, production houses, and other related entities.