Hipgnosis Songs Fund (SONG) has announced the sale of about 20,000 non-core songs for $23.1m, representing approximately 1% of its portfolio.
The announcement says that these songs are a subset of those identified as the potential $25m second disposal announced in September. They were bought, together with some “iconic songs” in 2020, as part of Kobalt Fund One. The statement says that they require time intensive, ongoing accounting and reporting obligations and do not all have perpetual ownership rights. It also says that the plan was always to sell eventually.
The sale value reflects a 14.2% discount to their valuation as at 30 September 2023 and a 9.6x net publisher share multiple. The proceeds will be used to pay down the revolving redit facility.
Hipgnosis Songs has also announced the appointment of Singer Capital Markets as its sole corporate broker and financial adviser, and Shot Tower Capital as lead adviser to conduct due diligence on the fund’s assets as part of its strategic review.
Next news will be results – on 19 December 2023 – hopefully we will get more colour on the way forward then.
SONG : Hipgnosis asset sale comes in at 14% discount to NAV