Rock Bidco Ltd, the London company Sony Music Group used to acquire the catalog of iconic band Queen, has published its first annual accounts (for the period ended June 30, 2025).
The filing, reviewed by MBW, shows the company received GBP £1.079 billion from its US parent and sole shareholder, SMG-One LLC, during its first year.
The £1,078,965,000 was paid as an “irrevocable, interest free advance subscription” for a single further £1 share.
That sum correlates with the roughly £1 billion, or USD $1.27 billion, reported for the acquisition at the time.
Because the money was “not repayable under any circumstance”, Rock Bidco recorded it as equity rather than as a loan.
Rock Bidco Ltd’s directors signed off on the accounts on July 16 and filed them at the UK’s Companies House.
The accounts never name Queen, describing the seller only as “a legendary British rock band”.
The list of subsidiaries removes any doubt, however, running from Queen Productions and Queen Music to Queen Films, Queen Touring, and the company that licenses We Will Rock You.
As reported by MBW at the time, Sony began taking control of those companies in June 2024, when Queen’s surviving members resigned as directors and Sony executives replaced them.
Sony acquired Queen‘s recorded music rights outside North America, in addition to the band’s global publishing, plus its ‘name, image & likeness’ rights. It also acquired the band’s operating companies behind touring, film, and the We Will Rock You stage musical.
The Queen catalog generated royalties of GBP £26,774,000 across the first accounting period of Rock Bidco Ltd, which ran just over 13 months from the company’s incorporation in May 2024 to the end of June 2025.
Of that, £24,357,000 was booked in the United Kingdom and £2,417,000 allocated to North America. (Sony bought Queen‘s recorded rights everywhere except the United States and Canada, where the band’s masters are owned by Disney‘s Hollywood Records. The likelihood here is that the UK number in Rock Bidco’s filing represents ex-North America earnings.)
Rock Bidco posted an annual operating profit of £15,663,000, after a £10,570,000 amortization charge on the music rights.
The company is amortizing those rights over a 40-year life, at 2.5% a year.
To get the full picture, we also have to review a second company on UK Companies House: Queen Productions Ltd, traditionally the band’s main operating company.
According to its separate annual report filed with Companies House on June 30, Queen Productions Ltd – now a direct Rock Bidco subsidiary – booked royalties of £24,797,113 and an operating profit of £16,846,783 over the 12 months to June 2025, a margin of 68%.
Therefore, across the two group companies that disclose Queen’s royalty income, Rock Bidco and Queen Productions, royalties came to about £51.6 million for their most recent periods.
This combined figure is not a consolidated total, and intra-group licensing may mean the streams overlap, but it puts the £1,071,891,000 committed to the rights and subsidiaries at more than 20 times the catalog’s disclosed annual royalty income.
On top of royalties, Rock Bidco collected £32,160,000 in dividends from Queen-affiliated subsidiaries during the period.
The bulk of that dividend income came from Queen Productions Ltd, which paid £29,475,651 to Rock Bidco during the year.
Crucially, neither Rock Bidco nor Queen Productions publishes consolidated accounts – both ultimately roll up into Sony Group Corporation‘s worldwide results – so each reports only the money it earned itself.
However, the dividends that Rock Bidco receives from its subsidiaries – chiefly from Queen Productions – are counted within Rock Bidco‘s bottom line.
In other words, adding the two companies’ revenues together yields a meaningful figure – but adding their profits together does not, because it would double-count the same earnings.
The accounts name Sony Group Corporation as Rock Bidco‘s ultimate controlling party and SMG-One LLC as its immediate parent, and record that the company has no employees.
The accounts record the music rights as intangible assets, at a cost of £417,106,000.
They also show that Rock Bidco made £654,785,000 of investments in (i.e. to acquire) the Queen subsidiaries that exploit the catalog.
In July 2024, Apollo Global Management said it had provided a $700 million “capital solution” to Sony Music Group for “investments in the music industry”.
“This investment allows our clients to invest in high grade securities while helping Sony to execute its business plans,” Apollo partner Jamshid Ehsani said at the time.
MBW was first to report that Apollo had part-financed the Queen acquisition, though whether through debt, equity, or a combination was then unclear.
Apollo is not named anywhere in Rock Bidco‘s accounts, and its description of the facility, made on behalf of its insurance and third-party clients, points to a financing role rather than an ownership stake.
The deal also excludes the live income of Brian May and Roger Taylor, who continue to tour as Queen with singer Adam Lambert.Music Business Worldwide
