Hipgnosis seeks £250m to fund more music purchases

Hipgnosis Songs Fund said it planned to raise £250m through a share placing at 116p each as it looked to expand its music catalogue.

The offer represents a 7.9% discount to Friday's closing share price. Hipgnosis said up to 216mln shares will be placed while up to 3.6mln shares will be made available to retail investors.

Hipgnosis on Monday said it had a significant pipeline of catalogue purchases, including “some of the most influential hit songs of each of the past six decades which offer significant song management opportunities and will further diversify the company's income by artist, genre and vintage”.

The company is also in talks on further catalogues with an aggregate consideration of more than £1bn, it added.

Earlier this month Hipgnosis said it had invested around 82% of the net proceeds from its July C Share fundraising. Since then it has snapped up several more catalogues including Chrissie Hynde, Rick James and Steve Robson.