Markku Lonnqvist has been appointed Chief Investment Officer of Hipgnosis Song Management reporting directly to Chief Executive Officer Merck Mercuriadis.
Lonnqvist joins Hipgnosis from Pamplona Capital Management LLP where he was a partner for the last 17 years, managing investments across several funds both in Europe and North America.
Prior to that, he worked investment banking in London and New York for nine years.
Hipgnosis Song Management is the investment advisor to two Hipgnosis-branded funds: the UK-listed Hipgnosis Songs Fund, and the Blackstone-backed private fund, Hipgnosis Songs Capital.
Separately, Blackstone is also an investor in Hipgnosis Song Management.
As such, Hipgnosis Song Management not only makes acquisitions on behalf of these two funds, but also handles marketing and licensing (sync etc.) strategy for this acquired music in order to maximize returns.
Merck Mercuriadis, CEO and founder of Hipgnosis Song Management, said: “It’s a testament to our establishment of Songs as an asset class that someone of Markku’s extraordinary pedigree and success has chosen to join our mission. As Hipgnosis grows and the Songs asset class matures, it is important that we continue to develop our capabilities.
“Markku’s knowledge and experience will enable us to bring even more sophistication to our processes, ensuring that we continue to deliver value for investors and songwriters alike.”
Merck Mercuriadis, Hipgnosis
“At the heart of our business will always be these extraordinarily successful and culturally important songs which are a constant part of the fabric of our lives. Markku’s knowledge and experience will enable us to bring even more sophistication to our processes, ensuring that we continue to deliver value for investors and songwriters alike.
“Markku’s appointment and a number of key appointments in the Investment Team that are forthcoming over the next few weeks are clear demonstrations of the benefit to Hipgnosis Songs Fund shareholders of how we are improving our capabilities following our partnership with Blackstone.”
Markku Lonnqvist, Chief Investment Officer, Hipgnosis Song Management said: “I’m a major believer in Songs as an asset class so I’m excited to be joining the team at Hipgnosis. Merck has established the asset class and created a market leading platform with many exciting investment opportunities in the pipeline.
“I’m looking forward to building on the existing expertise to ensure that our investment platform remains amongst the most sophisticated in the sector for the benefit of our investors in both Hipgnosis Songs Fund and Hipgnosis Songs Capital as well as our songwriters.”
Earlier this month, Hipgnosis announced that Hipgnosis Song Management – using funds from Hipgnosis Songs Capital – had acquired a catalog of music from the Leonard Cohen estate.
That catalog included interests in 278 songs. In addition to fully acquiring the songs written by Cohen in the latter stages of his career (2001-2016), Hipgnosis also acquired the writer’s share of songs in Cohen’s Stranger Music catalog, including hits such as Hallelujah. (Sony retains ownership of the publisher’s share in the Stranger Music catalog.)
In January, Hipgnosis announced it had acquired an 80% stake in the recorded music royalty stream of country star Kenny Chesney.Music Business Worldwide