UPDATE: The Masterworks division of Sony Music Entertainment has acquired a 100% stake in the outstanding music, ballet & event promoter, Raymond Gubbay Ltd (RGL).
Masterworks previously held 49% of the shares as part of a broader agreement with the Berlin-based promoter DEAG AG but has since divested itself of shares in DEAG’s German and Swiss companies.
RGL will continue to be run by its senior management team comprised of Anthony Findlay, CEO, who has recently agreed a new long-term contract; Jonathan Marks, Chief Development Officer and Debra Eagers, Finance Director.
They will receive the full and active support of the Sony Music Masterworks management team, which includes President, Bogdan Roscic; Chief Operating Officer, Mark Cavell and UK Label Head, Sarah Thwaites (the latter two who also serve on the RGL Board of Directors), as well as a very talented team of employees at RGL.
Bogdan Roscic noted: “Sony Music‘s Masterworks division is now into its tenth year as a concert promoter. Our original investment in 2009 has been a strategically important and consistently profitable one, nowhere more so than in the UK, where Raymond Gubbay Limited is looking back on a string of absolutely record-breaking years.
“We feel that the future upside in this part of our portfolio is very much in the UK as well as in international projects driven from the UK and have therefore decided to acquire the remaining shares in RGL, becoming its sole owner. This will lead to a much closer collaboration between RGL and the Sony Music Masterworks team in London under Sarah Thwaites. There’s a great synergy at work here and I am confident our RGL colleagues under the leadership of Anthony Findlay, Jonathan Marks and Debra Eagers will deliver important opportunities as we continue to grow our overall UK business”.
Mark Cavell added: “It’s been an absolute pleasure working with Anthony and his team during the nine years Sony and I have been involved with RGL and seeing the company grow and innovate during that time. As a wholly owned SONY Music company within the Masterworks division, I anticipate that this growth will now accelerate”.
Founded in 1966, RGL promotes and produces live music, ballet, dance and other successful arts events. It has gone from strength to strength, with the last three years being the strongest in the Company’s long history.
Staging in excess of 500 event nights each year, RGL retains its roots in classical music but has undertaken significant expansion into new genres and new markets.
It remains at the forefront of producing and presenting popular events, notably ‘Classical Spectacular’, first staged in 1989 and now played to an audience in excess of two million people worldwide.
Music Business Worldwide
