Guernsey Press

A finely tuned fund: working in harmony with Hipgnosis

Mariana Enevoldsen, director at Ocorian, a global leader in fund administration and capital markets, corporate and fiduciary services, explains how the Guernsey-registered Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited has brought an entirely new asset class to the London Stock Exchange – some of the most commercially successful songs of all time

Published
Ed Sheeran’s Castle on a Hill is one of over 13,000 artists’ songs owned by Hipgnosis. (28674420)

Mariana Enevoldsen, director at Ocorian. (28674415)

A new asset class

HIPGNOSIS Songs Fund Limited brought a new asset class to the London Stock Exchange, offering investors exposure to songs and associated musical intellectual property rights.

Hipgnosis is a Guernsey registered investment company which was admitted to the London Stock Exchange just over two years ago after an initial public offering (IPO) raising £202.2mn. It has now raised a total of over £860m. from the market.

The vision

Hipgnosis was founded by Merck Mercuriadis, the former manager of successful international recording artists such as Elton John, Iron Maiden and Beyonce. His vision is to create a £2bn fund that invests in the best music catalogues whilst recognising the contribution of songwriters and promoting their interests in the economic equation. This provides the investment community with a new asset class that, through the expert management of the songs acquired, is delivering strong and growing returns for shareholders.

A success story

Hipgnosis has been a real success story, raising over £860m. in total through its IPO in July 2018 and four subsequent issues. In August 2020 another milestone was reached when its market cap exceeded £1bn for the first time.

This level of success saw Hipgnosis promoted to the FTSE 250 Index in March 2020, after just 20 months since its first fundraise. With a strong pipeline of catalogues, further fundraising activity is likely to be on the horizon.

Hipgnosis now owns over 50 music catalogues comprising in excess of 13,000 songs, some of which are the most culturally important and commercially successful songs of all-time including Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’, Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’ and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Castle on a Hill’ to name but a few.

Ed Sheeran’s Castle on a Hill is one of over 13,000 artists’ songs owned by Hipgnosis. (28674420)

There is more set to come too, with Hipgnosis continuing to build a tremendous pipeline to give the financial community access to songs as an asset class that have very low correlation to wider markets.

Why Guernsey?

Guernsey is a dynamic offshore financial centre. Owing to its stable financial and political environment, flexible regulatory regime and thriving financial services sector, it continues to be a popular domicile destination for funds and a conduit for global business. Its effectiveness as a nimble jurisdiction has been epitomised by how it has navigated the Covid-19 pandemic

Ocorian’s involvement

Hipgnosis not only required an experienced fund administrator that could provide a highly personalised service and support it through the fund’s initial stages, but it also needed an administrator with requisite scale to service the fund through its ambitious growth journey and we have worked with them since the fund’s inception.

Ocorian performs all the day-to-day administration, accounting, corporate secretarial, governance and regulatory services, ensuring the effective functioning of the fund and subsidiary companies in compliance with all applicable regulations and best practices.

We are very proud to be a part of the Hipgnosis family and delighted to be supporting the fund throughout its incredible growth journey, adapting and tailoring our services as the fund has scaled up to match investor demand.

Ocorian has extensive experience in providing flexible and bespoke services to a wide variety of alternative funds listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Our experience in servicing new promoters and partnering with funds throughout their life cycle means we continue to support Hipgnosis on their growth journey.

Supporting success

Fund administration is a highly specialised service that requires precision and expertise if investment managers are to focus their efforts on the formulation and implementation of strategy without distractions.

Ocorian combines a high level of technical experience with a proven track record in the administration of fund structures, private and listed, investing in alternative asset classes.

Get in touch with us at ocorian.com to discuss how we can support your specific fund needs or if you are interested in joining our successful and growing team.