MBW told you back in August that Round Hill Music was planning a potential IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Now, it’s happening.
New York-headquartered Round Hill Music intends to float a new fund on the LSE next month, targeting a raise of $375m.
MBW understands that the firm’s official Intention To Float (ITF) announcement will be issued in the coming days.
Round Hill is believed to have identified a portfolio of catalogs from well-known songwriters and artists that it intends to acquire with the newly-raised capital.
These ‘pipeline investments’ consist of over 40 catalogs, across 120,000 songs, collectively worth $363m.
Cenkos Securities plc is acting as sole bookrunner and financial adviser for the IPO.
Round Hill Music was formed in 2012 by its CEO, Josh Gruss, with an initial fund of $200m to spend on copyrights.
Six years on, it raised again, this time for $263m, bringing its total spending power close to $500m.
Over the past eight years, Round Hill has also acquired rights to songs made famous by the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bruno Mars and Florida Georgia Line, as well as master catalogs created by the likes of The Offspring and Bush (whose catalog is co-owned by the company alongside the band’s frontman, Gavin Rossdale).
The company is targeting total returns for investors in its new London fund of 9-11% per annum, including a dividend yield of 4.5%.
In addition to its New York HQ, Round Hill runs additional offices in Nashville, Los Angeles and London.
Its management team includes Neil Gillis, Richard Rowe, Steve Clark, Erich Carey, Amanda Siconolfi and Shannon Farley, working alongside Josh Gruss.
Round Hill’s in-house sync division, Zync, specialises in placing Round Hill’s music across film, advertising, TV, trailers, sports and video games.
Round Hill majority-acquired Zync in 2017, in order to maximise the commercial potential of music assets under its control.
Round Hill’s biggest acquisition to date was its buyout of Carlin in January 2018 for circa $245m, which netted the firm the Elvis Presley catalog, amongst over 100,000 copyrights.
In terms of its London Stock Exchange flotation, Round Hill follows in the footsteps of Merck Mercuriadis‘ Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which IPO’d on the LSE in 2018.
Hipgnosis has since raised and spent over $1bn on music rights, and built up a market cap valuation in excess of GBP £1bn.Music Business Worldwide
