Blackstone makes $1.24/share offer for Hipgnosis Songs Fund, topping Concord (NYSE:BX)

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) on Saturday said it had made a fourth offer to acquire British musical intellectual property and song management firm Hipgnosis Songs Fund, two days after the London-listed company agreed to a $1.4B deal with music and theatrical rights rival Concord Chorus.

Concord and Hipgnosis on April 18 said they had reached an agreement under which the former would buy the latter for $1.16/share in cash for a total consideration of about $1.4B.

Blackstone’s (BX) latest offer is at a price of $1.24/share, a nearly 7% increase from Concord’s offer.

“Blackstone (BX) strongly encourages the Board of Hipgnosis to recognise the significant increase in value available to all shareholders under the terms of its Fourth Proposal, over the $1.16 as set out in the Concord Offer, and to work with Blackstone (BX) to reach agreement on a unanimously recommended Firm Offer in an expeditious manner,” the world’s largest private equity firm told Seeking Alpha in an emailed statement.

Hipgnosis was founded by music industry veteran Merck Mercuriadis. Today, it handles over 146 catalogues with about 65K songs including work from artists such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Journey, Mark Ronson, Shakira and Blondie.

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