The music rights fund once hailed as “the future of music publishing” is set to be absorbed into a decades-old US royalties giant, and the music mogul who founded it is to be kicked out, as the Hipgnosis Songs Fund agreed a £1.1 billion sale to Concord Music Group.
Assuming no further twists, it brings an end to the saga of the Hipgnosis Fund six years after its IPO. The company stole the headlines as it bought up the rights to hits by artists like Beyonce, Shakira and Neil Young. But over the past 18 months, it became more associated with a tumbling share price, valuation errors and constant feuds between its board, shareholders and founder Merck Mercuriadis, who managed the song rights. Last year, Hipgnosis shareholders voted to wind up the fund after a controversial sale of part of the portfolio to a separate vehicle also run by the former Guns n’ Roses manager Mercuriadis.
