Concord Chorus Limited (Bidco) has increased its offer for music rights investment trust Hipgnosis Songs fund to $1.51bn (£1.21bn) in the wake of the potential counter-offer from Blackstone.
The firm is now offering $1.25 per Hipgnosis share, up from the $1.16 in the previous deal announced last Thursday (18 April). This tops the potential Blackstone counter-offer ($1.24 per share) by a single cent per share, and represents a 42.6% premium to the trust’s closing share price of 71p on 17 April.
In a regulatory filing yesterday evening, the investment trust said its directors believe the increased offer is in the best interests of shareholders and unanimously recommended the deal.
The deal will be put to shareholder at a court meeting and general meeting, currently scheduled to take place on 10 June.
Concord said it “remains committed to becoming the new owner of Hipgnosis”.
See also: Concord to buy entire issued share capital of Hipgnosis
It also revealed it intends to sell up to 30% Hipgnosis’ assets within a two year period following completion of the acquisition.
Irrevocable undertakings
Concord Music also announced it has agreed to purchase CCLA’s entire shareholding in Hipgnosis at $1.25 per share, which represents approximately 4.8% of the trust’s issued share capital.
The move further reduces the votes that had already been cast in favour of the overall acquisition to 20.7%.
Concord’s proposed purchase originally received support in the form of an ‘irrevocable undertaking’ from some 30% of its shareholders, including CCLA, Schroders, Asset Value Investors, Hawksmoor Investment Management and Premier Funds Management.
However, JO Hambro sold 5,417,761 shares in SONG, having previously owned 20,453,123 – or 1.69% of the overall portfolio, on Monday.
The deal requires support of 75% of shareholders to complete.
