DEAG Buys Back Classics Department From Sony Music Germany, Sells Shares In Raymond Gubbay UK

Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) has reacquired 49 percent of DEAG Classics AG from Sony Music Germany (including the shareholding in The Classical Company AG, Switzerland), and in turn is selling its shares in U.K. promoter Raymond Gubbay to Sony Music Entertainment International Ltd.

DEAG Classics works exclusively with artists like Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov, but also, on a non-exclusive basis, with Rolando Villazón, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Till Brönner, Joja Wendt and The Piano Guys.

The company “will benefit 100 percent from [DEAG Classics’] success going forward,” DEAG’s announcement states.

– Kew the Music
The annual concert series is promoted by DEAG subsidiary Kilimanjaro Live and Raymond Gubbay. And that won

The transaction is a first step towards successively reducing minority interests with the aim of increasing the earnings per share attributable to DEAG shareholders, and proceeds are intended to further strengthen DEAG’s position in the U.K..

DEAG CEO founder of Prof. Peter L.H. Schwenkow explained: “The transaction enables us to continue to achieve two strategic goals. With the complete acquisition of 100 percent of the shares of DEAG Classics AG, we will increase earnings per share within the next few years. And with the cash inflow of €10.6 million, we are in a position to accelerate the expansion of our position in the British market. The proceeds will also continue to serve our goal of successively reducing minority interests in order to return to an attractive dividend policy.”

The joint projects of Raymond Gubbay Ltd (RGL), which is now 100 percent owned by Sony Music Entertainment, and DEAG companies such as Kilimanjaro Live Ltd will continue unchanged. “Indeed the collaboration could possibly be expanded to new and additional projects,” a statement from Kilimanjaro Live reads.

Kilimanjaro Live is currently selling its most successful year ever, with over 1million fans attending the record breaking Ed Sheeran stadium tour which has just finished. The company has been working with Raymond Gubbay for several years on events such as the Kew the Music concert series in London.

“2019 is looking to be just as busy with lots of announcements in the pipeline and the return of Live at Chelsea and Kew The Music,” the statement continues.

Kilimanjaro Live CEO Stuart Galbraith commented: “We will continue to enjoy the full support and the opportunities of collaboration within the DEAG Group, with Flying Music Group but also with RGL in the future. There are numerous opportunities for us to grow our business which we will be able to continue to exploit.”

Detlef Kornett, executive board member of DEAG, added:  “DEAG and I am grateful for the integrity, loyalty and the tremendous success we have experienced in partnering with RGL ltd, in particular with its senior management Debra Eagers, Anthony Findlay and Jonathan Marks and their staff. 

“We have seen through a fundamental change to the business of RGL while profitability increased in our time and the transaction allows RGL to prosper and at the same time the DEAG Classics business to continue to thrive, also in the U.K.. We are actively looking now at opportunities overall in the UK market to continue on our tremendous growth path that DEAG has started in partnership with Kilimanjaro and also Flying Music Group.”

Pollstar has reached out to Sony Music Entertainment Ltd to understand what the acquisition of Raymond Gubbay means for the major label.

Update: Sony Music Entertainment points out that it triggered the deal. “Sony Music Masterworks triggered the call option to buy 100 percent of Raymond Gubbay Limited, and at same time agreed to sell 49 percent shares in the German and Swiss DEAG Classics companies to DEAG AG. RGL is now a fully consolidated company of Sony Music and a valuable company within the Sony Music Masterworks International division,” a company statement reads.

RGL will continue to be run by its senior management team comprised of Anthony Findlay, CEO, who has recently agreed a new long-term contract,  chief development officer Jonathan Marks and finance director Debra Eagers. “They will receive the full and active support of the Sony Music Masterworks management team, which includes president Bogdan Roscic; chief operating officer Mark Cavell and U.K. label head, Sarah Thwaites (the latter two who also serve on the RGL Board of Directors), as well as a very talented team of employees at RGL,” the statement continues.

Roscic noted: “Sony Music‘s Masterworks division is now into its tenth year as a concert promoter. Our original investment in 2009 has been a strategically important and consistently profitable one, nowhere more so than in the U.K., where Raymond Gubbay Limited is looking back on a string of absolutely record-breaking years. We feel that the future upside in this part of our portfolio is very much in the UK as well as in international projects driven from the U.K. and have therefore decided to acquire the remaining shares in RGL, becoming its sole owner.

“This will lead to a much closer collaboration between RGL and the Sony Music Masterworks team in London under Sarah Thwaites. There’s a great synergy at work here and I am confident our RGL colleagues under the leadership of Anthony Findlay, Jonathan Marks and Debra Eagers will deliver important opportunities as we continue to grow our overall U.K. business.”

Added Cavell: “It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Anthony and his team during the nine years Sony and I have been involved with RGL and seeing the company grow and innovate during that time.  As a wholly owned Sony Music company within the Masterworks division, I anticipate that this growth will now accelerate.”

Founded in 1966, RGL has become an expert in promoting and producing live music, ballet, dance and other arts events. The the last three years have been the strongest in the company’s long history by its own admission. Staging in excess of 500 event nights each year, RGL retains its roots in classical music but has undertaken expansion into new genres and new markets.

Update: The statements from Sony Music Entertainment have been added after the article was originally published.