Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries Sells Another $351M In WMG Stock

Sells $351m IN WMG Stock To Morgan Stanley

LEN BLAVATNIK’s ACCESS INDUSTRIES has sold another $351m in WMG stock. The majority owner of WARNER MUSIC GROUP, has struck an agreement to sell 8.56 million shares of WMG’s Class A Common Stock to MORGAN STANLEY. The price was confirmed at USD $41 per share. 

WARNER MUSIC GROUP didn’t sell any shares in the offering, and won’t receive any of the proceeds. MORGAN STANLEY, as underwriter, is now expected to sell the 8.56 million shares to investors through various channels.

TODAY’s (1/4) news follows ACCESS INDUSTRIES selling another tranche of WMG stock, 2.34 million shares, worth around $105 million, to MORGAN STANLEY in SEPTEMBER 2021. With that move, combined with the latest 8.56 million share sale, MORGAN STANLEY has acquired nearly half a billion dollars in WMG stock from ACCESS INDUSTRIES over the past four months.

Sources suggest that BLAVATNIK may be playing a strategic game to help bump WARNER’s share price. The prospect of ACCESS INDUSTRIES (via MORGAN STANLEY) releasing millions of shares into the trading realm could increase interest in WARNER’s stock, pushing the share price upwards as a result. But, as of TODAY, WARNER MUSIC GROUP’s share price is down a little over 4% on the NASDAQ following news of ACCESS’s share sale.

The $350 million-ish that LEN BLAVANIK just banked represents more than 10% of the $3.3 billion that ACCESS initially spent acquiring WARNER MUSIC GROUP in 2011.

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