The Wright Way For EMI

Having sold the company he founded to BMG Rights Management for nearly £108 million, former Chrysalis chief Chris Wright is now recommending the buyer follows up by acquiring British music company EMI.

“There are some very good assets at EMI and EMI Music is a very good company. We should not lose sight of that,” Wright told the Daily Telegraph. “If BMG is ever in the position to buy it then I think they should.”

Although Wright – who now becomes the non-executive UK chairman of BMG Rights and joins its supervisory board – makes a good case when outlining the upside of buying the debt-laden major, he’s not singing from exactly the same hymn sheet as company chief exec Hartwig Masuch.

Masuch has publicly said BMG Rights Management, a joint venture between German media giant Bertelsmann AG and U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, would be interested in EMI Group’s recorded music back catalogue but “integrating EMI’s publishing would be tough.”

“We are increasingly moving into representing master catalogues and EMI is the iconic catalogue. We are more confident these days; it is no secret we are more interested in rights to masters than publishing,” he said.

Both views will likely increase the speculation that BMG Rights is up there alongside Warner Music Group as a leading candidate to buy at least part of EMI, particularly among analysts who feel current owner Terra Firma treated the loss of its U.S. court battle against its bankers at Citigroup as proof that it could no longer win the war to keep hold of the company.

Various music companies and private equity firms are said to be in the frame as possible purchasers of EMI, but Warner and BMG Rights could actually raise the money to buy it and would likely extract the most from it.

Since the Manhattan Court defeat against Citigroup, Terra Firma chief Guy Hands hasn’t said anything about his future plans for EMI.

However, most of the UK business papers believe Terra Firma investors have had enough of dipping into their pockets for further equity cures and would be very much against selling a better asset – such as the Odeon cinema chain – to raise more money to pour into EMI’s seemingly bottomless pit.