Hipgnosis Songs Fund raising £200m in placing, opens retail offer

Music intellectual property investor Hipgnosis Songs Fund announced placing on Thursday, aiming to raise £200m to fund further acquisitions of "hit songs" over the next three months.

The FTSE 250 company said it was being conducted under its existing placing programme, in accordance with the prospectus it published on 27 September 2019.

At the same time, it announced a retail offer of new shares via PrimaryBid, at a price of 100p each.

It said the net proceeds of the issue would be used to fund further acquisitions in line with its investment policy, to create further value for shareholders.

That was also expected to expand the diversity of the Hipgnosis portfolio and income streams, with the board anticipating deployment of the net proceeds within three months.

“I founded Hipgnosis to give the investment community access to the predictable and reliable income that comes from successful hit songs and to establish songs as an uncorrelated asset class,” said chief executive officer Merck Mercuriadis.

“To date we have been backed with over $1 billion in investments by more than 50 of the most reputable institutional investors in the world.

“This is the first time we have put focus on the retail sector, having become not only a FTSE 250 company but also the 58th biggest yielder in the index.”

At 0815 BST, shares in Hipgnosis Songs Fund were up 0.43% at 116.5p.