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Blackstone Submits $1.5 Billion Takeover Bid for Hipgnosis Songs Fund, Rivaling Concord

Private equity giant Blackstone submitted a $1.5 billion proposal to take over Hipgnosis Songs Fund, rivaling Concord's earlier $1.4 billion offer.

The five-year-old, London-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund has cut its net asset value and shareholder dividends in recent months, as it struggled to address accounting errors and infighting between its board and investment manager that have angered investors already frustrated by an underwhelming stock price. On Thursday (April 18), the board of directors announced in a filing with the London Stock Exchange that it had agreed to recomment a $1.402 billion proposed takeover bid from Concord to shareholders, which values each Hipgnosis share at £0.93 ($1.14). Mercuriadis used his relationships in the music industry to build the fund’s portfolio of rights to hit songs, and this option in the investment advisory contract was designed to give artists confidence that their catalogs would never trade hands — something that famously angeredTaylor Swift.

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