HgCapital Trust plc Regulatory News (HGT)

11 Apr 2008 10:25

HG Capital Trust PLC11 April 2008 The following is the text of a press release issued by HgCapital, which managesthe investment portfolio of HgCapital Trust plc alongside those of otherinstitutional clients. On completion of the sale of Boosey & Hawkes, HgCapitalTrust plc, a listed investment trust giving investors the opportunity toparticipate in all of HgCapital's investments, will realise a total of about£8.8 million. The impact of the realisation on the net asset value of HgCapitalTrust plc represents an increase of approximately 29.0 p per share over thepublished 31st March 2008 net asset value of 986.7p. HgCapital agrees to sell Boosey & Hawkes for £126 million to Imagem Music • Sale completes successful four-year investment and turnaround programme • B&H reinforced as world class music publishing group London, 11th April 2008: HgCapital, the European sector-focused private equityinvestor, today announced that it has agreed to sell Boosey & Hawkes, theleading classical music publishing and rights group, to Imagem Music, the musicpublishing fund of Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP (ABP) and CP Masters BV and oneof Europe's leading independent music publishers, for a consideration ofapproximately £126 million. The sale completes a successful four-year investment for HgCapital andrepresents a significant return following its original acquisition of Boosey &Hawkes, then a public company, for £75 million in December 2003. During that time the firm supported Boosey & Hawkes' management in executing atransformation from a traditional classical music publisher into a 21st centurymusic rights group. It has outsourced a number of non-core activities such asprinting and distribution and developed a series of new revenue streams. Inparticular it has developed a strong presence in the market for music inadvertising and film, where revenues are currently growing at approximately 30%per annum. In 2003, Boosey & Hawkes made earnings (before interest, tax, depreciation andamortisation) of approximately £3.3 million; by 2007 it achieved earnings of£6.8 million. Boosey & Hawkes controls the rights to more than 116,000 works of music andchoreography, from many of the world's most famous classical composers,including Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Benjamin Britten and Prokofieff. It alsoworks with many of the world's most renowned living composers such as PeterMaxwell Davies, Karl Jenkins, John Adams and Steve Reich. During HgCapital ownership it has made six acquisitions that have moved it intonew areas such as tango and jazz, including signings with composer/performerssuch as Wynton Marsalis. The existing management team led by John Minch, theChief Executive, will be retained. Imagem Music - the music publishing fund of ABP (represented by APG) and CPM -has acquired the classical catalogue managed by Boosey & Hawkes. The acquisitionis a long term strategic investment for Imagem Music, which also recentlyacquired various music rights catalogues from Universal Music Group, such asZomba UK, Rondor UK, 19 Music and the greatest part of the BBC catalogue. Commenting on the transaction, Nick Turner from HgCapital said:"We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with Imagem Music. Boosey &Hawkes is a first class music publisher that has thrived under HgCapital'sownership and this transaction fully reflects the hard work and success that thecompany and its management have enjoyed in recent years. We wish them well forthe future." Ronald Wuijster, head of Strategy and Research of APG Investments, said:"We view this transaction as a great add-on to our recent acquisition of certaincatalogues with popular music content from Universal (UMG). This acquisition ofthe largest classical music rights catalogue in the world greatly diversifiesour portfolio and strengthens our position. "We are committed to be a long term investor in this space and find intellectualproperty rights, among which music rights is an important category, a lucrativenew asset class with interesting characteristics for a long term investor thatis looking for real absolute returns." Andre de Raaff, CEO of CP Masters BV, said:"We are extremely excited to be connected now with the world's best classicalmusic from many legendary composers as well as many successful living composers.Classical entertainment is enjoying tremendous growth, because of the ageing ofthe world population. Boosey & Hawkes and our other music publishing assets willbe run separately, however synergies with regard to syncs, finance, royalties &copyrights and the Boosey & Hawkes offices in Berlin and New York will becreated immediately. " John Minch added:"This is an excellent outcome for everyone concerned. HgCapital has been atremendous owner for Boosey & Hawkes over the past four years and enabled it toundergo transformational change. In 2003 Boosey & Hawkes was in somedifficulties as a public company and going private enabled us to make theradical changes necessary for the survival of the business. "Imagem Music meanwhile promises to be a highly supportive long-term owner thatcan reap steady and predictable financial benefits from our world class musicportfolio. We look forward to working with them." HgCapital was advised in this transaction by Close Brothers Corporate Financeand Weil Gotshal & Manges. APG was advised by ABN AMRO Bank N.V., Herbert Smithand Statham Gill Davies Solicitors. -Ends- Contacts: HgCapitalNick Turner Tel: +44 (0) 207 089 7890 Boosey & HawkesJohn Minch Tel: +44 (0) 20 7054 7200 Maitland (PR Advisers to HgCapital andBoosey & Hawkes)Neil Bennett Tel: +44 (0) 207 379 5151 CP Masters BVAndre de Raaff Tel: +31 (0) 35 647 4040 APGThijs Steger Tel: +31 (0) 45 579 8100 About HgCapital HgCapital is a sector focused private equity investor in the Europeanmid-market. We focus on investments with an enterprise value in the range of£50-£500 million. Our business model combines sector specialisation withdedicated, pro-active support to our portfolio companies as well as thecorresponding management expertise across all phases of the investment process.HgCapital manages more than €2 billion for some of the world's leadinginstitutional and private investors. Our goal is to achieve outstanding resultsfor our investors, management team and intermediaries.For further details, see www.hgcapital.com About APG APG is an independent pension services company based in the Netherlands. APGInvestments is a division of APG, All Pensions Group. APG Investments managesmore than €200 billion and it is one of the largest managers of pension assetsin the world. APG promotes the pension interests of 2.7 million Dutch citizensand more than 4000 Dutch employers. APG employs 2500 people, 450 of which areactive in asset management. APG has offices in the Netherlands in Amsterdam andHeerlen.www.apg.nl About CP Masters CP Masters is one of Europe's leading independent music companies and is ownedby Andre de Raaff and Denis Wigman (CP Masters' CFO). Andre de Raaff has overthirty years' experience working in and running music publishing companies. Heis a board member of the Dutch performing rights society BUMA and chairman ofthe Dutch Music Publishing Association (NMUV). CTM is an entertainment companyactive in several sectors such as; film, TV, records and music publishing. CPMasters is the music publishing business of CTM. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange