Proactive Investors - Distressed music royalties fund Hipgnosis (LON:SONG), which owns the rights to back catalogs ranging from Beyonce to Neil Young, has received a rival takeover proposal from private equity firm Blackstone (NYSE:BX).
Hipgnosis, which just on Friday agreed to a US$1.4 billion/US$1.16 per share bid from Nashville-based music rights owner Concord, said it “would be minded to recommend to its shareholders should Blackstone announce a firm intention to make an offer”.
Blackstone’s proposal improves on Concord’s bid by 6 cents per share, implying an approximate valuation of US$1.5 billion.
Blackstone is already the majority owner of Hipgnosis’ investment advisor, Hipgnosis Song Management.
Until Blackstone puts a formal offer in writing, Hipgnosis’ directors recommend that shareholders continue to support Concord’s offer.
Stocks to recover
Stocks are expected to partially recover when markets open this morning as tensions between Iran and Israel appear to have momentarily simmered down.
Though the FTSE 100 staged a late-day recovery on Friday, the blue-chip index still closed the week 10 points in the red as traders became nervous about escalating Middle East tensions.
On today’s macroeconomic calendar, the CBI Business Optimism Index should give a gauge of the state of manufacturing optimism in the UK; it is expected to lightly recover after deteriorating to the lowest point in a year in the fourth quarter of 2023.
A smattering of small-cap trading updates from the likes of Brave Bison Group (LON:BBSN), Elixirr International (LON:ELIX) and Frenkel Topping Group (LON:FEN) is due, while Verizon (NYSE:VZ) is reporting out of the US later in the day.
Futures contracts have the FTSE 100 index opening 76 points higher at 7,975.