Warner Music Group Launches $1.8 Billion IPO

Company offers up 70 million shares with a target price of $23-$26

ed sheeran cardi b michael buble warner music group
Getty Images

Warner Music Group has launched its initial public offering (IPO), aiming to top $1.8 billion from the sale of 70 million shares of Class A common stock.

The offering has a target price between $23 and $26 per share. On the low end of its range, the IPO would value the bundle of shares at $1.61 billion. On the high end, the 70 million shares would equate to $1.82 billion.

After the IPO, Warner Music Group will consist of 510,000,000 total shares. The IPO’s target price places the valuation of the entire company between $11.73 billion and $13.26 billion.

This initial public offering consists entirely of shares held by Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, LLC, according to an S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The IPO comes with a 30-day option for underwriters to purchase up to an additional 10.5 million shares of the company’s Class A common stock.

The billionaire Blavatnik owns the entirety of Warner Music Group through numerous entities.

Warner Music Group (WMG) “will not receive any proceeds from the offering,” according to the Tuesday filing. Shares will trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under ticker symbol WMG.

The sale will occur “as soon as practicable,” the lengthy filing reads. Readers can find WMG’s S-1 here. Warner Music Group registered for the IPO back in early February.

WMG is the home to record labels Atlantic Records, Warner Records, Elektra Records and Parlophone Records, as well as publishing business Warner Chappell Music.

Warner Music Group artists include Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Death Cab For Cutie, Wiz Khalifa, Cardi B, Gary Clark Jr., Jason Derulo, Echosmith, The Flaming Lips, Jenny Lewis, Linkin Park, Muse, Nico & Vinz, Prince, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Royal Blood, Blake Shelton, Hunter Hayes, Brett Eldredge, Cole Swindell, Frankie Ballard, Dan + Shay, Ashley Monroe, Randy Travis, Delta Rae, Ben Fields, Residual Kid, Cold Fronts, Neil Young, Green Day, Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, Slipknot, Rush, Theory of a Deadman, and Killswitch Engage, among many others. The company holds the publishing for Twenty One Pilots, Lizzo, and Katy Perry, to name just a few.

Comments