Hipgnosis sells 20,000 songs for $23.1m

(Sharecast News) - Troubled music rights investor Hipgnosis Songs Fund on Monday said it had sold around 20,000 songs for $23.1m, a 14.2% discount to valuation at the end of September. The non-core songs, require-time intensive ongoing accounting and reporting obligations and do not all have perpetual ownership rights," the company said in a statement, adding that the sale represents about 1% of the company's investment portfolio by value.

Net proceeds after costs are expected to be around $22.6m, and will be used to pay down debt "providing the company with greater headroom under its future covenant compliance reporting".

The company also announced the appointment of Singer Capital Markets as sole corporate broker and financial adviser and Shot Tower Capital, LLC as lead adviser to conduct due diligence on the firm's assets as part of its strategic review.

Hipgnosis was founded by former band manager Merck Mercuriadis in 2018 and spent millions buying up music rights from major artists to provide income for investors, but the asset class has fallen out of favour amid a higher interest rate environment.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com