Universal Music Publishing Group’s sale of assets to gain European Commission approval for its acquisition of BMG Music Publishing is complete.
Dutch fund ABP, the world’s third largest pension fund, and European indie music publisher CP Masters BV acquired the assets. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The catalogs include Rondor UK, Zomba UK, 19 Music, 19 Songs and the BBC Catalog.
For this acquisition, and for further investments in music publishing, ABP and CPM have created a new publishing company named ImageMusic. As part of the agreement, UMPG has entered into an arrangement with ImageMusic to subpublish these catalogs outside of the United Kingdom and Continental Europe, while ImageMusic will subpublish the Zomba U.S. catalog in the United Kingdom and Europe.
“With these divestments, we fulfill the EC mandated conditions of our BMG Music acquisition,” says David Renzer, chairman/CEO of UMPG.
“And we’re particularly delighted that these catalogs will continue to flourish under the guidance of one of Europe’s leading independent publishers. Outside of Europe, we look forward to continuing our work with the songwriters associated with these catalogs, and providing all our songwriters, composers, artists and business partners with the very best in creative management, administrative support and business savvy.”
“ABP is actively pursuing innovative investments,” added Ronald Wuijster, head of Strategy and Research of ABP Investments. “The idea to enter into this type of investment was generated by our own organization and it is the first time ever that a fund has invested in music catalogs. Music publishing continues to be a robust and exciting business and we are delighted to be working with CP Masters. We will certainly look to continue expanding our investment in this very important area of the global music business, both in terms of acquisitions and infrastructure.”
André de Raaff, CEO of CP Masters, has been involved in the music business for more than three decades.
“I fully understand the quality of the songs involved here, and the great songwriters whom we will now have the chance to work with,” de Raaff says.
“My team and I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to expose a whole new generation of fans to the wonderful music contained in these catalogs, while we continue breaking new songwriters and artists.”
