Warner and UMG plot forthcoming IPO
Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group both announced they would like to go public, with the former announcing they already filed IPO paperwork with the SEC.
The pending injection of music into the trading space is big news, seeing as two of the three major labels are now heading towards an IPO with Sony Music additionally making their foray into finance via the Tokyo Stock Exchange. While IPOs are typically risky and expensive, they provide an increase in finances with the goal of future growth for music and festivals. These decisions most likely come from strong revenue performances from the sector.
WMG has gone public before. The label was public while under Time Warner and traded stocks as an independent company until 2011. Leonard Blavatnik of Access Industries bought WMG for US$3.3b in 2011 with hopes return to the market by 2023.
UMG’s parent company, Vivendi, recently released 10% of the music conglomerate to China’s Tencent for US$3B earlier this year. UMG saw a revenue increase of 14% in 2019 with streaming revenue jumping an astonishing 21%.
H/T: Digital Music News and Variety
Categories: News