Aniket Pujari(Bloomberg) — A group of Universal Music Group NV shareholders affiliated with billionaire Bill Ackman’s hedge fund Pershing Square is set to raise about €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) from the sale of about a 2.7% stake in the world’s largest music company.
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd., Pershing Square LP and Pershing Square International Ltd. are poised to price an offering of about 50 million Universal Music shares at €26.60 each, according to terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg News, the bottom of a marketed range.
There are enough orders to cover the shares offered, the terms show. Shares in the Amsterdam-listed company were being marketed at €26.60 to €27.90 each.
The placement comes as Taylor Swift’s record label plans a US share sale agreed in order to fulfill an agreement with Pershing Square, the company said in January. The deal required that Ackman’s firm sell $500 million of its shares in connection with a US listing, according to a post on Ackman’s X account at the time.
Universal Music is Pershing’s largest position, and will be about 17% of the portfolio after the sale, Ackman wrote in an X post on Thursday.
“We believe UMG is one of the best businesses we have ever owned,” Ackman said.
Shares of Universal Music closed at €27.90 each in Amsterdam on Thursday. They have climbed 13% in the year to date. The company’s American depositary receipts declined 6.5% in New York.
Universal Music reported sales that topped analysts’ estimates in the fourth quarter, boosted by growth from subscriptions to streaming platforms. Company executives have focused on winning new subscribers on platforms such as Spotify Technology SA, Apple Inc.’s Apple Music and Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Music by converting listeners on free, ad-supported streaming tiers to paid premium subscriptions.
The company’s top selling artists of the fourth quarter were Swift, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, as well as Wicked: The Soundtrack.
Morgan Stanley is working on the Amsterdam share sale, the terms show.
(Updates with Ackman social media post in fifth and sixth paragraph.)
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