UMG Repurchases $290M of Stock from Pershing Square
The buy-back concludes Pershing Square's investment in UMG
Universal Music Group has repurchased 14,156,285 of its ordinary shares from Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square.
Why it matters:
The buy-back formed part of the disposition of the entire remaining UMG position owned by various Pershing Square funds.
The repurchase ends Pershing Square’s tenure as a shareholder in the major.
Quick catchup:
On April 7, Pershing Square tabled a non-binding takeover proposal of UMG, valuing the company at €55.8 billion ($64.4 billion).
On May 29 UMG’s Board of Directors rejected the proposal, stating it was “not in the best interests of UMG, its shareholders, artists, songwriters, employees and other stakeholders.”
As per Music Business Worldwide, on June 3 Bloomberg reported that following the rejection, Pershing Square would be selling around 80.6 million UMG shares via an overnight placing.
Financial details:
UMG acquired the shares at a price per share of €17.66, totaling approximately €250 million ($290 million).
The repurchase was executed outside of UMG’s existing €500 million share buyback program, and was instead carried out under an additional €500 million share repurchase authorization granted by shareholders at UMG’s Annual General Meeting on May 13.
UMG says it plans to use the repurchased shares to meet its obligations under the 2022 Universal Music Group Global Equity Plan, and/or to reduce its share capital.
👋 Disclosures & Transparency Block
This story was written with information from UMG’s press release and Music Business Worldwide.
We covered it because it’s news of Pershing’s exit as a UMG shareholder.
