Hipgnosis agrees £1.1bn sale to US rival Concord

THE extraordinary six-year saga of music rights business Hipgnosis Songs Fund as a publicly quoted company is set to end after it today agreed a £1.1 billion sale to US rival Concord.

- Daniel O’Boyle

The company founded by former Guns n' Roses manager Merck Mercuriadis in 2018 and brought to the market through an IPO in the same year was once hailed as "the future of music publishing" as it bought up the rights to hits by hundreds of artists including Beyonce, Shakira and Neil Young.

But over the past 18 months, it became more associated with a tumbling share price, valuation errors, and constant feuds between its board, shareholders, and Mercuriadis, who managed the song rights.

Last year, Hipgnosis shareholders voted to wind up the fund after a controversial sale of part of the portfolio to a separate vehicle also run by Mercuriadis.

Today's deal likely means the end of the road for Mercuriadis' role in managing the fund. Concord Music Group has an in-house team that manages its own portfolio, which includes 1.2 million hits from an eclectic mix of artists, from Igor Stravinsky to M.I.A., as well as Daft Punk and Pink Floyd.