Blackstone doesn’t intend to increase its latest offer to acquire Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF), the London-listed investment trust it first launched a takeover bid for on April 20. The private equity firm said in a regulatory filing Tuesday (June 25) that the financial terms of its June 3 offer “are final and will not be increased” unless a higher offer or possible offer materializes. The announcement appears intended to thwart any attempts by opportunistic investors to extract a higher offer from Blackstone.
Analysis of shareholder data by The Financial Times shows that hedge funds known to trade on takeover targets have acquired “well over” 25% of HSF’s shares, raising the possibility that Blackstone’s offer will fail to reach the minimum 75% approval threshold when shareholders vote on the proposal at HSF’s July 8 general meeting. Blackstone’s latest offer of $1.31 per share values HSF’s share capital at a total of $1.
584 billion. After some back-and-forth with Concord, which bid $1.25 per share on April 24 and $1.
14 per share on April 14, Blackstone increased its bid to $1.30 per share on April 29 and then to the current $1.31 per share price on June 3.
Securing the acquisition would allow Blackstone to consolidate HSF’s 65,000-song catalog with two entities it currently owns: the private music assets investment fund Hipgnosis Songs Capital and Hipgnosis Song Management, the investment advisor to HSF. The collection of rights held by HSF includes songs.
