Investors To Back Power’s Music Festivals

Vince Power’s bid to float Music Festivals on the alternative investment market will get an enthusiastic reception from investors, according to The Guardian.

“This is a goer,” one senior fund manager told the UK daily, a day before the investor roadshow kicked off March 21.

The listing is being handled by Merchant Securities and is expected to raise between £8 million and £9 million, which will be used to buy three events including Power’s Hop Farm and Fèis festivals.

It’s also said to be looking at a so far unnamed classical music event.

Several of the UK’s business papers are reporting the float is attracting interest from institutional investors.

The company, which is debt free profitable despite its Benicassim Festival in Spain having a bad year in 2010, will be chaired by former Capital Radio chief exec David Mansfield. Power will be the chief executive working alongside his former Mean Fiddler compatriot Jon Hale as finance director.

Power’s most recent venture, a pubs and promotions business, ended in administration but investors are apparently still keen to back his expertise in the outdoor arena.

“We will start festivals from the ground up as well as acquire them,” Power told The Guardian. “We’ve got a five-year plan to turn this into a substantial festival company.”

Power is best known for his time in charge of Mean Fiddler, which began with one venue in north London and eventually grew to own Leeds and Reading festivals.

The company floated on AIM in 2001 and four years later was sold for £38 million to a joint-venture formed by what was then Clear Channel and Irish promoter Denis Desmond’s Gaiety Investments.

Power returned to the festival business once his non-compete agreements expired in 2008.

The non-compete clauses are said to include him not promoting festivals or venues with capacities of 2,000 for more than three years.

At press time it wasn’t possible to contact Desmond, who is also a Music Festivals shareholder, to hear if he’ll be looking to buy a bigger slice of the company.