By Mark Kleinman, City editor
Sir Elton John’s former manager will this week launch a second attempt to list a music royalties fund on the London Stock Exchange with one of the largest public market fundraisings so far this year.
Sky News has learnt that Hipgnosis Songs, which was set up by the industry veteran Merck Mercuriadis, will announce on Wednesday plans for an initial public offering (IPO) to raise roughly £200m.
The announcement will represent Mr Mercuriadis's latest effort to take Hipgnosis Songs public following an initial plan launched almost exactly a year ago.
Investors who have been approached about backing the IPO said that N+1 Singer, a City broker, had been hired to oversee the fundraising in place of Cenkos Securities, which worked on last year's aborted float.
One of the music industry's most ubiquitous figures, Mr Mercuriadis is no stranger to stock market investors, having run Sanctuary Group prior to its sale to Universal Music in 2007.
Mr Mercuriadis is a former manager of big-name acts including Guns N' Roses, Iron Maiden, Mary J Blige and the Pet Shop Boys.
In a prospectus published last year, Hipgnosis Songs said it had assembled an advisory board which included Nile Rodgers, the American musician who worked on albums such as David Bowie's Let's Dance and Madonna's Like A Virgin.
The document said that Hipgnosis planned to acquire catalogues featuring songs from artists such as Adele and Beyonce, Justin Bieber and Kanye West.
It was unclear on Tuesday whether the same catalogues would remain targets for Hipgnosis if it succeeds in going public this year.
One investor who has been approached about investing in the company said the range of commercial opportunities for music royalties funds such as Hipgnosis made it an attractive proposition.
Investor interest in music royalties income is growing as a result of the expansion of music usage in social media and demand in emerging markets.
"The company's objective is to provide shareholders with an attractive and growing level of income, together with the potential for capital growth, from investment in songs and associated musical intellectual property rights," last year's prospectus said.
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Mr Mercuriadis founded a broader music group in 2015 also called Hipgnosis, a name well-known to music-lovers because of the art design group which created famous album covers for bands including Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
A spokesman for Hipgnosis declined to comment.
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