Universal Music Buys Chord Catalog Stake With Beyonce Songs and More

Common Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest music firm, has acquired a 25.8% curiosity in Chord Music Companions for $240 million. As a part of the deal, UMG will now deal with distribution and publishing administration for Chord’s present catalog, offered by UMG’s Virgin Music Group and Common Music Publishing Group (UMPG), respectively.

Fashioned in 2021 by KKR and Dundee Companions, the funding workplace of the Hendel household, Chord owns over 60,000 copyrights. This contains stakes in high songs like “Desires” and “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac, “La Grange” by ZZ High, “Counting Stars” and “Apologize” by OneRepublic, “Redbone” by Infantile Gambino, “I Like Me Higher” by Lauv, “Pursuit of Happiness” by Child Cudi, “All Of Me” by John Legend, “Ladies Like You” and “Sugar” by Maroon 5, “Halo” by Beyonce and “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri.

Following the completion of the transaction, KKR will exit Chord. Beforehand, it was the bulk stakeholder within the catalog agency. Now, Dundee is rising its share to 74.2% and UMG will maintain the remaining minority share.

UMG was suggested by Goldman Sachs, Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Freshfields. DLA Piper and Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP served as authorized advisors to Dundee. Fifth Third Financial institution, Nationwide Affiliation served as monetary advisor and offered dedicated financing to Dundee and UMG. The Raine Group served because the unique monetary advisor and Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, LLP served as authorized advisor to Chord Music Companions. Latham & Watkins LLP served as authorized counsel to KKR.

Lucian Grainge, chairman/CEO of UMG, mentioned in an announcement: “Discovering companions who share our ardour for figuring out iconic songs and recordings that can stand the check of time and ship long-term development is crucial, which is why we’re so happy to be working with Stephen and Sam Hendel and Dundee Companions. With the management of Jody Gerson at UMPG, Nat Pastor and JT Myers at Virgin, and the help of our skilled artistic executives world wide, nobody can do extra with music rights than our groups. We stay up for creating most industrial and inventive worth for the songwriters and artists in Chord and constructing for the long run.”

Boyd Muir, UMG govt vp/CFO/president of operations added: “We’re excited to associate with the Hendel household in Chord for numerous causes. First, KKR and Dundee have constructed a really high-quality catalog that can profit from our first-rate administration and international capabilities. Second, this new construction gives us with an environment friendly automobile for future catalog acquisitions, with out important capital allocation by means of a mix of leverage and associate fairness capital. And eventually, it provides us the proper associate to strategy future development opportunistically and flexibly, one who’s equally bullish on the long-term prospects for music.”

Sam Hendel, Dundee Companions’ managing principal/co-founder of Chord, added: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Common Music Group and embarking on this subsequent thrilling chapter for Chord. By combining a best-in-class monetary acquisition automobile with the world’s main music firm, we’re creating each a premier platform for music funding in addition to a everlasting residence for premier artists’ legacies and their iconic cultural works. We’d prefer to thank the crew at KKR for his or her partnership and creating a robust basis for Chord and its future success.”

“We’re grateful to have had the chance to collaborate with many main artists and to create important worth for our buyers by constructing Chord right into a differentiated and scaled portfolio,” mentioned Jenny Field, associate at KKR. “We consider that Dundee and UMG will drive additional worth creation for artists and that they share our dedication to being respectful stewards of artists’ music.”