Common Music Group shares surge in £110m bonus for Lucian Grainge

Common Music Group’s shares surged by greater than a 3rd in its inventory market debut on Tuesday, placing its chairman and chief government, Sir Lucian Grainge, in line for a possible bonus of just about $150m (£110m).

Shares on the earth’s largest music firm, the label behind artists together with Taylor Swift and Bob Dylan, closed up greater than 35% at €25.10 on its first day of buying and selling, giving the enterprise a market worth of €45bn (£38bn).

Common’s father or mother firm, Vivendi, had set a reference worth of €18.5 a share, a market capitalisation of €33.5bn, earlier than the launch of its crown jewel asset on the Euronext inventory change in Amsterdam.

Nonetheless, buyers desirous to money in on the streaming growth – analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove have described Common Music as an “extraordinary, must-own asset” – have made it the most important European itemizing of the yr.

British-born Grainge is in line for one of many largest company payouts in historical past. Beneath the phrases of the flotation Grainge will obtain a “transaction bonus” of $90m, and about one other $55m scaled in opposition to the extent of Common Music’s market capitalisation fairness worth being above $30bn.

Which means that the 61-year-old is in line for a bonus of probably greater than $140m, in response to Vivendi’s prospectus on the flotation printed final week.

Grainge, who was paid a complete bundle of €50m final yr, may also obtain as a lot as $40m referring to the sale of 10% stakes in Common Music to the Chinese language know-how group Tencent and Invoice Ackman’s Pershing Sq. hedge fund. Grainge additionally holds 13,187 shares in Common – his inventory in father or mother Vivendi has transferred to the music firm. They’re price €331,000 at Tuesday’s closing worth of €25.10.

Grainge, who was knighted in 2016 and obtained a star on Hollywood’s Stroll of Fame final yr, got here near dying after contracting coronavirus weeks after a lavish occasion celebrating his sixtieth birthday in February final yr.

Vivendi’s transfer to spin off Common, which accounts for about three-quarters of the French conglomerate’s income, noticed its personal share worth fall by as a lot as 15% in early buying and selling. Vincent Bolloré, Vivendi’s controlling shareholder, has obtained a stake price nearly €6bn in Common following the flotation.