MUMBAI: After having sold Parlophone Music Group to Warner earlier, Universal Music has now agreed to sell yet another label Sanctuary Records to BMG for $62 million.
The sale is a part of the divestitures mandated by the European Commission as a condition of approving Universal’s acquisition of EMI Group.
BMG had earlier lost out on acquiring Parlophone, but now managed to bag Sanctuary Records in its stable. The label comprises of 170,000 recordings of rock and heavy metal acts including Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Megadeth and more in its catalogue.
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The news comes in less than two months after BMG acquired another key divestment from Universal’s buyout of EMI Music – the Mute Records catalogue.
That deal was confirmed on the same day BMG announced it had also acquired the publishing rights to the Virgin and Famous Songs repertoire – both divestments from another big deal, Sony/ATV’s buyout of EMI Music Publishing.
Universal has yet to sell off two additional assets, Co-op, a British independent marketing and sales company, and EMI’s European stake in the Now music joint venture. Universal has now raised almost $828mn, which means that it has paid around $1.04bn for the EMI recorded music it still retains, including the Beatles, Capitol Records, Virgin, Caroline, Astralwerks, Blue Note and the Christian Music Group.
