Blackstone And Hipgnosis Song Management Launch $1 Billion Partnership

Investing $1 Billion

BLACKSTONE and HIPGNOSIS SONG MANAGEMENT (HSM) are teaming to invest $1 billion to buy music rights and manage catalogues. BLACKSTONE will take an ownership stake in HSM as part of the deal.

HIPGNOSIS CEO MERCK MERCURIADIS, who is serving as investment advisor to HIPGNOSIS SONGS FUND LTD (SONG), said, "HIPGNOSIS SONG MANAGEMENT has firmly established songs as an asset class. This new partnership with BLACKSTONE will deliver financial strength to invest in proven songs as well as grow our song management team and bring additional sophistication to HSM, enabling us to create greater value to our stakeholders including our songwriters and shareholders in SONG. Given the strength of our pipeline, we see the initial commitment as just the start of a long-term partnership between BLACKSTONE and HIPGNOSIS that will also include co-investment with SONG." SONG will have the right to co-invest in future catalogue acquisitions alongside the new BLACKSTONE–HSM partnership.

BLACKSTONE TACTICAL OPPORTUNITIES Sr. Managing Dir. QASIM ABBAS added, "This partnership underscores the long term, sustainable value we see in creative content across the wider entertainment industry, building on MERCK’s vision and dynamism. The music industry has been at the forefront of the fast-growing streaming economy and is unlocking new ways of consuming content."

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