DLA Piper advises Concord in financing its US$1.4 billion recommended cash offer for Hipgnosis

DLA Piper has represented Alchemy Copyrights, LLC, trading as Concord, and its subsidiary Concord Chorus Limited (“Bidco”) in all financing aspects of its recommended cash offer for the shares of Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited, a London Stock Exchange main market listed and Guernsey-registered music IP investment and song management company, for US$1.4 billion.

The offer was made with support from Concord’s long-term financing partner, Apollo Global Management (Apollo), which has committed to provide financing for the acquisition in the form of debt capital, as well as a minority, indirect equity interest in the Concord-controlled Bidco.

Since its IPO in 2018, Hipgnosis has built a music portfolio that includes works from artists such as Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and more.

Robert J. Sherman, co-chair of DLA Piper’s Entertainment Finance practice, said: “We were pleased to assist our longtime client Concord on financing this crucial offer and believe the Hipgnosis music library will be a great fit in Concord’s extensive catalogue of more than 1.2 million songs.”

A global team supported on the matter and was led by partners Robert Sherman (Entertainment Finance, Los Angeles), Jonathan Klein (Corporate, New York) and Mark Dwyer (International Finance, London). They were supported by partners Claire Hall (Structured Finance, Los Angeles) and Gerald Rokoff (Tax, New York), Ben Brown (Tax, London), Jon Earle (Corporate, London), legal director Michael Graham (Tax, London), senior associate Eleanor Mountain (International Finance, Manchester), associate Swati Lal (International Finance, London), John Wei (Tax, Boston), Kali Jelen and Payvand Coyle (both Entertainment Finance, Los Angeles) and Peter Phillips (Corporate, New York).

DLA Piper's market-leading international team of media, sport and entertainment lawyers, located throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, advises on M&A, finance, borrowing, investment and corporate issues, production and rights acquisitions, exploiting media rights, staging and exploiting live sports and other events, intellectual property protection and enforcement, regulatory and administrative issues, antitrust and competition law, stadium and arena development and resolution of disputes.