After the sale to Terra Firma, the ensuring disaster, the salvage by Citigroup and the refinancing, could the next chapter for EMI be… another sale?
The music group says it “has initiated a process to explore and evaluate potential strategic alternatives, including a possible sale, recapitalisation or initial public offering of the company”.
Recapitalisation may be the least likely option, at least by Citigroup alone, which in February wrote off EMI’s debts in exchange for its equity, after Guy Hands’ Maltby Capital found itself unable to repay Citigroup what it borrowed to by EMI in the first place.
More likely – separate sales of EMI’s recorded music and music publishing divisions. While the failure of digital growth to offset physical decline in most countries means recorded music sales are still declining, EMI’s catalogue is considered one of the best in the world.
Full announcement…
LONDON – EMI Group Ltd (EMI), one of the world’s leading music companies, announced today that the Board of Directors of its holding company, EMI Group Global Ltd (the “Company”), has initiated a process to explore and evaluate potential strategic alternatives, including a possible sale, recapitalisation or initial public offering of the Company.
In making the announcement, EMI stated that there can be no assurance that this strategic review process will result in a transaction. The Company does not intend to disclose developments with respect to its strategic review process unless and until its Board of Directors has approved a specific transaction.
EMI Group is one of the world’s leading music companies. Its EMI Music and EMI Music Publishing divisions operate around the world to deliver successful outcomes for artists and songwriters through EMI’s global rights management strategy. EMI Music represents artists spanning all musical tastes and genres through record labels including Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Latin, Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, EMI Records Nashville, Manhattan, Parlophone, Virgin Classics and Virgin Records. EMI Music Publishing is the leading publisher of popular music, representing more than one million copyrights including some of the best known songs ever written. Iconic songs in the EMI Music Publishing catalogue include “New York New York”, “The James Bond Theme”, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, “Always On My Mind”, “Over The Rainbow” and “Singin’ In the Rain”.