Billionaire investor Invoice Ackman is stepping down from the board of Common Music Group N.V., the world’s largest music firm, as he shifts focus to rising tasks at Pershing Sq. and a brand new management position at Howard Hughes Holdings.
Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Sq. Capital Administration and Chairman of Pershing Sq. Holdings, formally resigned from UMG’s board following its annual basic assembly on Tuesday, ending a three-year tenure that started shortly after the music big’s public debut in 2021.
Ackman’s exit comes as he assumes new tasks as Government Chairman of Howard Hughes Holdings, a publicly traded actual property growth agency, alongside his ongoing oversight of Pershing Sq.’s funding portfolio.
Common Music, house to artists akin to Taylor Swift, Drake, Billie Eilish, and Nigeria’s rising afrobeats stars like Rema and Ayra Starr, has more and more attracted investor curiosity. Nonetheless, its share worth has remained stagnant since its spinoff from Vivendi in 2021, regardless of the corporate’s expansive artist roster and international streaming attain.
In a submit on X (previously Twitter) beforehand, Ackman reiterated his perception that Common Music is undervalued, citing its itemizing on the Euronext Amsterdam alternate as a key purpose. He famous that the corporate’s restricted liquidity and exclusion from main U.S. indexes, such because the S&P 500, have prevented it from reaching its full market potential.
“Common trades at a big low cost to its intrinsic worth, in vital half as a consequence of it not having its main itemizing within the U.S.”, Ackman wrote.
His remarks adopted stories that UMG was contemplating relocating its main inventory alternate itemizing from the Netherlands to the USA. The transfer is alleged to be accelerated by current antisemitic incidents in Amsterdam and will supply the $46 billion firm higher visibility and entry to institutional capital.
Ackman, who acquired a ten.25% stake in UMG throughout its spinoff, turned the corporate’s largest particular person shareholder.
His agency, Pershing Sq. Holdings, had lengthy championed Common Music as a high-value, capital-light enterprise poised to profit from the worldwide development in music consumption.
“UMG’s enterprise will be finest regarded as a quickly rising royalty on the higher international consumption and monetization of music,” Pershing Sq.’s 2021 investor report learn.
Ackman argued then that music offered “the lowest-cost, highest-value” type of leisure, with vital room for pricing development and worldwide growth.
