Respected manager and former Sanctuary CEO Merck Mercuriadis has proceeded with the plan to float his Hipgnosis Songs Fund on the London Stock Exchange after successfully raising £200m ($264m) from an initial investor pool. Shares will be publicly traded starting 7/11.

As SONGS, the firm is the first LSE listed pure-play music investment firm and is so far the biggest fund IPO of this year.

The cash will be used to buy a bank of songs by more than 50 artists from the past five decades. Included are “proven, evergreen songs from award-winning songwriters” and more than 10 U.S. and U.K. #1 hits. We have word that Mercuriadis has lined up £400m worth of deals in the pipeline to choose from.

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