French billionaire Vincent Bolloré has rejected a €55bn (£48bn) takeover offer for Universal Music Group (UMG) from Bill Ackman's Pershing Square hedge fund. The bid, which valued the world's biggest music company at about €55bn, was made public on Tuesday and would have moved UMG's stock market listing from Amsterdam to New York.
Pershing Square, which already owns a 10% stake in UMG, proposed a cash and stock deal that included a 78% premium over the company's closing share price on Thursday. Ackman blamed UMG's poor share price performance on the delay of its US listing, underutilisation of its balance sheet, and uncertainty around Bolloré's 18% stake.
Bolloré, who orchestrated UMG's Amsterdam listing in 2021, is the largest single shareholder with a combined 28% stake via his own holdings and Vivendi. Despite Ackman's claims that Bolloré was 'intrigued' by the proposal, the French billionaire has now formally rejected the offer, according to sources close to the matter.
UMG, home to artists including Taylor Swift, Drake, and Adele, has seen its shares lose more than a quarter of their value in the past year. The offer triggered a 13% rise in UMG's share price on Tuesday, but the rejection is likely to weigh on the stock.
Analysts said Ackman would need a 'full-on charm offensive' to win over major shareholders. The deal would have seen UMG merge with a Pershing Square blank-cheque company and list on the New York Stock Exchange, with Sir Lucian Grainge remaining as CEO under a new compensation arrangement.
