Hipgnosis Songs Share Discussion Threads

[typo56] 16/10/2023 16:55

Memories of Sanctuary Group in the noughties.

Is Mercuriadis his real name? Just happens to be an anagram of "Music Raider"?

[epo001] 16/10/2023 14:16

Heavy selling today and last Friday, someone knew.

[pteris] 16/10/2023 12:59

AVI are voting against the proposals
hxxpS://www.assetvalueinvestors.com/agt/campaign/avi-letter-to-shareholders-of-hipgnosis-songs-fund/

[kohsamui] 16/10/2023 12:17

A fire sale would not be in the interest of investors…trusted new management and establishing a correct valuation is probably better.A redemption vote in a couple of years would also be nice. I wonder if a termination fee can be avoided in view of management incompetence and conflict of interest put in place since issue. Round Hill Music management must be looking for a job !

[red army] 16/10/2023 11:12

The downside has been over cooked mainly because of negative market pressures and lack of confidence with managament. The asset values are much higher

[laughton] 16/10/2023 10:58

WoW! - iDealing tells me that there is a £30 charge per account per holding for allowing me to proxy vote.

I shall be winding down my holdings with them to cash or a minimal number of holdings and then transferring to another provider (they charge per holding for transfers so that mounts up).

Shame really as I've been with them from the beginning - have a trading and 2 ISA accounts and they total, what for me is a LOT of money.

And I apologise to anyone who has acted on my previous very positive comments on iDealing.

[mpage] 16/10/2023 10:45

Imagine you pay for a party. The guests come, trash your pad and then demand that you pay them money to leave.

In addition to the annual advisory fee, the investment adviser has built in a termination fee worth one year's advisory fee (based on NAV not market cap). Still worth paying just to get rid of them. That said, this is a clear failure of corporate governance by the main institutional shareholders.

[cynicalsteve] 16/10/2023 10:41

SONG floated at 100p and issued a large number of new shares at well over 100p during the good years, so in theory they are a bargain at this price. In the real world I fear that a forced sale would give investors 80-90p per share, vulture funds aren't charities!

[kohsamui] 16/10/2023 10:03

The trust should include vote on change of management as no one will trust current management to sell the assets fairly..suppose that comes after voting for wind up. Luckily Trust is 75% institutional held and the pressure will be on with legal expertise.
No one likes it when the banks are involved, but hopefully they have not lost money from the 100p floatation. Shame all the managers have lost is their reputation.

[brwo349] 16/10/2023 09:03

What a stupid over-reaction to the share price. The net assets value is unchanged since the unpaid dividend will cancel out the small reduction in net assets due to this news

[cynicalsteve] 16/10/2023 08:44

Hipgnosis may know a lot about the music business but they are amateurs at running an investment business. Don't rely on Blackstone to rescue investors, they will be starting to wonder what they have got themselves in to.

[feddie] 16/10/2023 08:29

This is it. Wind down assured now at an uncertain valuation.

[spectoacc] 16/10/2023 08:05

Divi pulled.

[mpage] 13/10/2023 16:55

HL clients appear to account for 1% of the equity (institutions own c. 74%) so I doubt if the votes of private investors will make any difference. But voting is the only way to send a signal to a board.

[laughton] 13/10/2023 16:28

Thanks for that. Have now spoken to HL and registered my votes with them.

Waiting to hear back from iDealing about the shares I hold with them

[mpage] 13/10/2023 15:23

Yes and yes. HL.

[laughton] 13/10/2023 15:07

mpage - do you hold your shares in a broker account and if so will they enable you to vote? If so, which broker?

[mpage] 13/10/2023 14:52

To vote for or against continuation.

For: a large slice of assets are sold cut price to connected party Blackstone. This is the crux of it - if BS is getting the assets on the cheap - they not only set a lower market price but may come back to acquire the remainder of the company for a similar discount. This is why the institutional shareholders are deeply unhappy. In addition, one of the connected parties has a say in which assets would be sold to Blackstone.

The cash raised to be used to reduce the expensive debt taken on and then some of the remainder (but possibly not much of it) to be used for share buybacks which may or may not boost the share price a bit. Some additional sops such as a refreshed board and more frequent continuation votes.

These proposals are being used to try and split the continuation vote as the proposals would only happen IF people voted for continuation (the proposals come about an hour later as EGM). Annoyed and want a wind up? Please give us some more time - we'll see you right and you'll probably still get some dividends sez SONG.

Against: Connected party appears to be trying to grab assets on the cheap and do over those who wish to remain long-term investors. Board has appeared ineffectual. Risk that revolving credit facility gets tapped out and div is cut. A vote to wind up also means handing over a break fee to those who have become connected parties. Grr. The div may be cut and the share price plummet as income holders dump.

However, arbs would likely move in quickly and the appointment of, say Robert Naylor, the previous chairman of Roundhill (who got a reasonable price for those assets) would be in a position to sell all the assets. Even if the ultimate buyer is Blackstone they may be forced to pay a more reasonable price or lose the assets to, say, Universal Music Group.

As a long-term holder of SONG, I am not prepared to be stitched up and will vote for a wind up - unless something new happens in the immediate future. By getting in a third party to agree a sale of assets at a reasonable price within a limited timeframe, I reckon I will salvage more of my investment - as otherwise I see BS as being the only final bidder for SONG which (in my view) will eventually be taken over. And, if the shares plummet on a vote to wind up, I might even buy some more - as I expect the arbitration hedge funds to move in.

SONG is not the only alt income investment trust to have been hit by significantly higher debt costs but the related party matter has significantly disadvantaged external shareholders. Fool me once, shame on you, as the song goes.

Am happy to read other views and reasons why we should vote yes to a continuation of this company.

[laughton] 13/10/2023 13:06

Anyone holding these in nominee accounts whose brokers are enabling them to vote on sale of assets or continuation proposal??

[brwo349] 11/10/2023 21:29

Major shareholders in Hipgnosis Songs Fund are preparing to block the sale of a $440mn music rights portfolio to a private sister fund owned by Blackstone as the UK listed business continues to fight for survival. 

The Financial Times has learned that there is significant investor opposition to the deal, which was proposed by the company’s board as a way to pay off debt and narrow the large discount between its share price and net asset value.

One top 10 investor told the FT that the price being offered by Blackstone — which also co-owns the company that manages Hipgnosis — was not high enough. “Its all about price — if it was 30 per cent higher then it might make sense. We don’t really want to be parted from the assets.”

more....

[brwo349] 09/10/2023 16:02

Im buying at 73.5p
Well done if you sold into that spike.

[jonals] 30/9/2023 10:44

Good detailed piece in FT Alphaville.

[edwardt] 29/9/2023 21:27

I stand by my view this is worth £1.20 odd even in a fire sake. That is enough for me.