Indie music company Beggars Group secured a majority stake in XL Recordings in 2024, according to newly released documents.
Beggars had long held a 50% stake in XL.
However, in its latest annual earnings filing with the UK’s Companies House, Beggars confirms that it paid a GBP £2.6 million (USD $3.3 million) consideration to XL Recordings’ “other shareholder” in October 2024 to acquire a majority stake.
That “other shareholder” is Richard Russell, who co-owns XL with Beggars Group.
Following the transaction, Beggars Group’s ownership share of XL Recordings rose to 51%.
XL, known for releasing music from acts such as Adele, The Prodigy, and Fontaines D.C, is now listed as a subsidiary of Beggars rather than a joint venture.
Beggars Group has for many years been owned by its Chairman, Martin Mills. In early 2024, control of the company was transferred to a trust connected to Mills, named in filings as the MM Settlement Trust.
Meanwhile, XL Recordings itself increased its ownership stake in various Beggars-linked companies in 2024.
According to Beggars’ accounts, XL paid Young Recordings Limited GBP £200,000 ($255k) to raise its stake in the label to 51%.
This effectively gave XL majority control of Young, whose catalog includes artists such as The XX, Jamie XX, Sampha, and others.
XL Recordings also increased its stakes in two other Beggars-linked companies in 2024, fully subsuming them both: (i) music publishers Beggars Catalogues LLP and (ii) Beggars Music Limited, reflecting an intricate web of inter-ownership between the Beggars Group and XL Recordings.
Outside of XL, Beggars Group owns 100% of 4AD, and 50% stakes in fellow indie labels Rough Trade and Matador.
Beggars also owns minority stakes in companies such as Rough Trade Retail, Remote Control Records, Popstock Distribution, and Independent Distribution Cooperative LLC.
In its latest earnings report, for calendar 2024, Beggars Group listed XL Recordings’ net assets as carrying a fair value of GBP £210.7 million.
Some GBP £31.5 million ($40.2m) of that figure was made up of cash, with a further £149.7 million ($191.2m) in fixed assets.
Beggars Group (including its share of subsidiaries) turned over GBP £109.9 million (USD $140.4 million) in the 12 calendar months of 2024, up 6.5% YoY.
The company’s total operating profit soared 48.6% YoY to £10.5 million ($13.4 million).
In 2021 the US recording rights to Adele’s first three albums (19, 21, and 25) reverted to XL’s ownership following the end of a long-running licensing deal with Sony Music/Columbia. That year, Beggars Group reported a 29.7% YoY jump in revenue.
Based in London with US headquarters in New York, and run by its co-founder Martin Mills, Beggars Group’s roster of current and former artists includes Jarvis Cocker, FKA Twigs, Grimes, Interpol, M.I.A., The National, Queens Of The Stone Age, Radiohead, The XX and others.
Over the years it has released music from the likes of Alabama Shakes, Badly Drawn Boy, Bauhaus, Basement Jaxx, Bon Iver, The Charlatans, Cocteau Twins, Cornershop, The Cult, Dead Can Dance, Deerhunter, PJ Harvey, Pixies, The Strokes, St. Vincent, Tyler The Creator, Vampire Weekend, Jack White, The White Stripes, and Yo La Tengo, among others.
All currency calculations are based on the average GBP-USD exchange rate for 2024, as listed by the IRS.Music Business Worldwide
