The board of Hipgnosis Songs Fund (SONG) has recommended that shareholders accept the $1.30 per share offer made by Blackstone Europe, via its wholly-owned investment subsidiary Lyra Bidco.
The $1.30 offer, equivalent to £1.04, would represent a 4% premium to the revised Concord offer of $1.25 (made on 24 April 2024), the other competing party publicly involved in the bid for SONG. It will also represent a 48.1% premium to the 71p per share price of SONG on 17 April 2024 (the last business day before the commencement of the offer period on which Concord made its initial bid for SONG). Lyra Bidco’s offer will value SONG at $1,527m, or £1.262m. Shareholders will, under the Lyra Bidco offer, have the option to receive their proceeds in sterling, at £1.04 per share.
SONG’s advisers, Singer Capital Markets, have advised the board that the terms are fair and reasonable. As such SONG’s board intends to recommend unanimously that SONG shareholders should accept or procure the acceptance of the Lyra Bidco offer. The board has also decided unanimously to withdraw its recommendation of the Concord Revised Offer.
Robert Naylor, SONG’s chair, commented:
“The board is pleased to unanimously recommend this $1.6bn offer for Hipgnosis from Blackstone. Since we started our strategic review, we have been clearly focused on looking at all the options to deliver shareholder value. We are delighted that, following competitive interests in acquiring Hipgnosis, our investors now have a chance to immediately realise their holding at an increased premium.”
The timetable for this looks like:
- an offer document published within 28 days
- completion during Q3 3024
[QD comment: Another day, another bid. This one may be the knock out blow. Last time around, Concord Chorus had to come up with a plan to sell of part of the portfolio after a bid as a way of securing extra funding from Apollo. It may not be possible for it to come back again. Nevertheless, Hipgnosis’s shares are up again today at around 106p.]