Groups set for joint takeover of Mean Fiddler

Irish music promoter MCD and US giant Clear Channel are poised to jointly take over London-listed Mean Fiddler in a deal valuing it at €46 million. Barry O'Halloran reports.

The Denis Desmond-owned MCD has forged an alliance with the $9 billion-a-year US group, Clear Channel Entertainment, to buy the 35 per cent stake held in the Mean Fiddler music group by its Waterford-born founder, Vince Power, for £12.9 million (€18.5 million).

That values the entire group at £33 million, or just over €46 million. Mean Fiddler has sales of over £40 million a year and owns a string of venues in the UK, as well as the Reading rock festival and 34 per cent of the Glastonbury festival.

It has promoted UK tours by names like R'n'B artist Usher and pop acts like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.

Through their jointly held vehicle, Hamsard, the pair has made a preliminary offer of 60 pence for Mr Power's stake, and subject to due diligence, has to make a formal offer for the holding within 30 days.

However, Hamsard said yesterday that it reserved the right to bid below that price.

If it succeeds in buying Mr Power's stake, this would automatically trigger a bid for the company's remaining share capital.

Under stock exchange rules, anyone who buys 30 per cent or more of a quoted company has to make an offer to take it over. MCD already owns 24.3 per cent of Mean Fiddler.

If Hamsard buys out Mr Power, this would give it effective control of close to 60 per cent of Mean Fiddler's issued share capital.

Another Mean Fiddler director, Harry Lambert, holds around 8 per cent of the company, and a further 8 per cent is held by two UK-registered private companies, Ashworth and Scanfrost. A number of institutions hold the 24 per cent-plus balance of the shares.

Mr Desmond is known to have been stalking Mean Fiddler for some time. Late in 2003, MCD bought 16 per cent of the company. It subsequently built this up to its current level.

Last autumn, Mr Desmond halted a shake-up of the group that would have seen Mr Power exit for £12 million. Mr Desmond objected to a parallel issue of new shares that would have seen the company raise around £5 million.

However, the involvement of Clear Channel was the surprise element of yesterday's news. The group has radio, television and advertising businesses in the US.

In the UK, it owns, or exclusively books, 28 venues in the UK, including the Grand Opera House in York and the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham.

Clear Channel had sales of $9.4 billion (€6.7 billion) last year. Live entertainment generated around 29 per cent of this.