Universal Music Group stock surged more than 35 percent above its reference price after arriving on the Euronext Amsterdam today.
Universal Music Group stock’s first day of trading on the Euronext Amsterdam has officially drawn to a close. Here’s how the Big Three record label’s shares fared with investors.
French conglomerate Vivendi set an €18.50 ($21.69 at the present exchange rate) reference price for Universal Music Group stock, and shares hiked as much as 43 percent past the figure out of the gate, to a high of €26.45 ($31) apiece. And while trading activity promptly cooled down – with shares dipping as low as €24.25 ($28.43) around 11 AM local time – UMG stock remained well above the aforementioned reference price, finishing the day at €25.10 ($29.42) per share, just beneath the €25.25 ($29.61) opening price.
The day-end value corresponds with a €45.51 billion ($53.34 billion) market cap for the Big Three record label – materially above the valuation at which Vivendi sold 20 percent of UMG to Tencent (for €6 billion and $7.03 billion presently) and 10 percent to William Ackman’s Pershing Square (for $3.95 billion). Moreover, factoring based upon the post-IPO UMG share ownership specifics disclosed by Vivendi, Pershing’s roughly 181.32 million shares are worth about $5.33 billion, against north of $10.67 billion for Tencent’s 20 percent interest and $9.61 billion for Bolloré’s 326.51 million shares.
Universal Music Group’s IPO arrived on the heels of double-digit recorded music industry growth in the U.S. during the first half of 2021, per the RIAA. Universal Music Group itself achieved a 38 percent YoY revenue boost during the same period, compared to an approximately $710 million YoY revenue improvement across April, May, and June for Sony Music Entertainment and a 33 percent YoY revenue hike for Warner Music Group.
On the latter front – and in a possible testament to investors’ confidence in the music industry’s long-term financial outlook – Warner Music Group shares quietly reached another record-high price this morning, $45.57 apiece. The figure represents an over $15-per-share jump since the Access Industries-owned label returned to the public market last summer, and at the time of this piece’s writing, WMG was up over 9.7 percent from yesterday’s close, at $44.19 per share.
Vivendi is set to hold onto a little over 10 percent of Universal Music Group for at least two years, and the French conglomerate confirmed today that it will commence the distribution in kind of UMG shares to Vivendi investors “as planned on the basis of one UMG share for every eligible Vivendi share” owned.
Vivendi stock (VIV on the Euronext Paris) declined in value substantially after Universal Music Group was spun off, for a current per-share price of €10.30 ($12.07).