WMG LAUNCHES IPO

Warner Music Group plans to sell 70m shares of its Class A common stock in an IPO with a price range expected to be between $23 and $26 per share.

The IPO is expected to raise around $1.7b. At the midpoint of the proposed range, Warner Music Group would command a market value of $12.5b.

The offering consists entirely of secondary shares to be sold by Len Blavatnik's Access Industries and certain related selling stockholders.

The underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 10.5m shares of Class A common stock from the selling stockholders. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Securities and Goldman Sachs & Co. are acting as joint book-running managers and as representatives of the 23 other underwriters for the offering.

Blavatnik’s Access Industries will continue to hold all of the Class B common stock and will continue to control 99% of the voting power in the company, according to its SEC filing.

It will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol WMG.