{"id":2285339,"date":"2026-02-17T08:29:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2285339"},"modified":"2026-02-17T08:29:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:29:32","slug":"uk-based-investor-independent-franchise-partners-takes-3-stake-in-universal-music-group-worth-1-2bn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/uk-based-investor-independent-franchise-partners-takes-3-stake-in-universal-music-group-worth-1-2bn\/","title":{"rendered":"UK-based investor Independent Franchise Partners takes 3% stake in Universal Music Group worth $1.2bn+"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A so-called \u2018activist\u2019 investor based in London called Independent Franchise Partners (IFP) has built a 3.01% stake in Universal Music Group<\/a>, the world\u2019s largest music company, according to a filing published by the Dutch financial markets regulator, the AFM.<\/p>\n

The filing shows that IFP held 55,155,646<\/strong> ordinary shares in UMG as of last Monday (February 9), carrying equivalent capital interest and voting rights of 3.01%.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on UMG\u2019s closing share price of \u20ac19.73<\/strong> on that date, the stake was worth approximately \u20ac1.09 billion (USD $1.29bn).<\/strong><\/p>\n

As reported<\/a> by Reuters<\/em>, the holding makes IFP the sixth-largest shareholder in Universal Music Group, according to LSEG data.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2009, Reuters<\/em> noted that IFP describes its investment focus as targeting exceptionally high-quality companies whose competitive advantage is supported by dominant intangible assets. The firm has not publicly commented on its intentions regarding UMG.<\/p>\n

IFP also holds a 5.37% stake in Vivendi and a 5.86% stake in British property platform Rightmove.<\/p>\n

IFP also appears to be a significant shareholder in Warner Music Group<\/a> (see below), holding a 9.1% stake in the company\u2019s Class A common stock as of March 2025, according to SEC filings, suggesting a broader bet on the music rights sector.<\/p>\n\n

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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

The Vivendi position is notable: Vivendi\u2019s controlling shareholder, the Bollor\u00e9 family, held an 18.5% stake in UMG and a 29.3% stake in Vivendi at the close of 2024, according to the Bollor\u00e9 Group\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

Vivendi, in turn, had a capital interest of 14.59%<\/strong> in UMG as of December 2024, though a portion of that was subject to a forward sale and equity swap<\/a>, reducing Vivendi\u2019s net economic exposure to approximately 10%.<\/p>\n

The relationship between those entities is currently the subject of a high-profile legal battle<\/a> in France.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/figure>
UMG\u2019s biggest stockholders as per the music company\u2019s latest annual report for 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

IFP\u2019s arrival on UMG\u2019s shareholder register comes during a period of upheaval among the company\u2019s major investors.<\/p>\n

In March last year, Bill Ackman\u2019s Pershing Square raised approximately $1.4 billion<\/a> from the sale of around 50 million UMG shares \u2014 a 2.7% stake \u2014 at \u20ac26.60 per share, reducing its holding to approximately 4.8%. That sale followed Pershing\u2019s distribution of a further 47 million shares<\/a> (2.6% of UMG) to its PSVII fund investors in January 2025.<\/p>\n

Ackman subsequently resigned from UMG\u2019s board<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n

In July, Cyrille Bollor\u00e9 \u2014 son of French media mogul Vincent Bollor\u00e9, and Chairman and CEO of the Bollor\u00e9 Group \u2014 stepped down from UMG\u2019s board<\/a> to focus on the Bollor\u00e9 Group\u2019s fight with France\u2019s AMF, which had ordered the group to make a mandatory tender offer for Vivendi shares it does not own.<\/p>\n

However, in late November, France\u2019s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, overturned the Paris Court of Appeal ruling that had found Vincent Bollor\u00e9 to be in de facto control of Vivendi \u2014 referring the question of control back to a freshly composed panel of the Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n

The AMF has said it cannot rule again on the mandatory tender offer until the new Court of Appeal decision is handed down.<\/p>\n

UMG also filed a confidential draft registration statement<\/a> with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July for a proposed secondary listing on a US stock exchange, but the timing of that listing remains uncertain.<\/p>\n

While the Tencent-led consortium\u2019s approximately 20% stake has remained steady through this period, UMG\u2019s share price has declined approximately 10% year-to-date in 2026, and is down around 30% over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

That decline has come despite continued growth in UMG\u2019s underlying business.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s most recent quarterly results<\/a> showed Q3 2025 revenues of \u20ac3.02 billion<\/strong>, up 10.2% YoY<\/strong><\/span> at constant currency, with adjusted EBITDA of \u20ac664 million<\/strong> \u2014 a margin of 22%.<\/p>\n

UMG is due to report its Q4 and full-year 2025 results on March 5.<\/p>\n

In an investor presentation published on February 11<\/a> \u2014 two days after IFP\u2019s filing date \u2014 Pershing Square made a bullish case for UMG, describing the company as \u201ca high-quality, capital-light, rapidly growing royalty on greater music consumption\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pershing argued that UMG\u2019s growth is set to accelerate, driven by \u2018Streaming 2.0\u2019 deals incorporating wholesale price increases that should lead to higher subscription revenue growth, and new partners and product tiers that should allow for better customer segmentation.<\/p>\n

On AI, Pershing said UMG is beginning to monetize the technology by partnering with new digital service providers creating tools for music discovery and creation, and argued that AI will lower the costs of creating music and allow UMG to operate more efficiently.<\/p>\n

Despite that optimism, Pershing noted that UMG trades at its lowest-ever valuation \u2014 18x earnings, or 17x excluding its ownership stake in Spotify<\/a> \u2014 citing the overhang created by uncertainty around the Bollor\u00e9 situation and UMG\u2019s delayed US listing as key factors depressing the share price.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven its market position and decades-long runway for sustained earnings growth, we believe UMG\u2019s current valuation represents a very substantial discount to its intrinsic value,\u201d Pershing concluded.<\/p>\n

MBW reached out to Universal Music Group for comment.Music Business Worldwide<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicbusinessworldwide.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A so-called \u2018activist\u2019 investor based in London called Independent Franchise Partners (IFP) has built a 3.01% stake in Universal Music Group, the world\u2019s largest music company, according to a filing published by the Dutch financial markets regulator, the AFM. The filing shows that IFP held 55,155,646 ordinary shares in UMG as of last Monday (February […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2285340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2285339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/UK-based-investor-Independent-Franchise-Partners-takes-3-stake-in-Universal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2285339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2285341,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285339\/revisions\/2285341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2285340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2285339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2285339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2285339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}