Believe, Spotify, Live Nation, K-Pop Shares Up

Believe’s share price jumped 19.2% to 14.78 euros ($15.93) this week following Monday’s news that a consortium including founder/CEO Denis Ladegaillerie plans to take the company private at 15.00 euros per share. The scant difference between the offer price and Friday’s closing price suggests investors believe Ladegaillerie, along with investment funds EQT and TCV, is likely to get the deal done.

“Believe has a significant opportunity ahead to consolidate the independent music market and create the first global major independent,” Ladegaillerie said in a statement. But the consortium, which has 71.9% of outstanding shares, has a good distance to go. After the group obtains a 75% stake through already agreed-upon transactions with some shareholders, it will acquire regulatory approvals and the opinion of an independent expert before making a tender offer for the remaining shares.  

The Billboard Global Music Index rose 1.4% to a record 1,659.96 as 13 of the index’s 20 stocks finished the week in positive territory. That brought the index’s year-to-date gain to 8.2%. Over the last 52 weeks, the index is up 29.4%.

Thanks to Believe’s double-digit gain and improvements from some large companies such as Live Nation, CTS Eventim and Spotify, the Billboard Global Music Index outperformed many other indexes around the world. In the US, the Nasdaq composite and the S&P 500 declined 1.3% and 0.4%, respectively. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index rose 1.1% to 2,648.76. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 gained 1.8% to 7,711.71. 

U.S. stocks had an off week, rocked by news on Tuesday (Feb. 13) that U.S. prices rose 0.3% in January. That led investors to flee from stocks for fear that the higher-than-expected inflation figures would cause the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates high to cool the economy. Then on Thursday (Feb. 15), numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau showed that retail sales fell 0.8% in January, worse than the expected 0.3% decline and well below December’s 0.4% gain.

Spotify gained another 2.2% to $246.18, bringing its year-to-date gain to 31.0%. Live Nation shares improved 4.2% to $93.27 ahead of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings release on Feb. 22. Reservoir Media rose 8.6% to $6.96 a week after the company raised its guidance for full-year results and posted 19% revenue growth last quarter. 

K-pop stocks have had a terrible start to 2024, though there was some improvement this week. SM Entertainment gained 9.7% to 80,100 won ($60.11), improving its year-to-date decline to 13%. HYBE, which is down 10.7% year-to-date, gained 4.3% to 208,500 won ($156.46). YG Entertainment rose 3.1% to 43,500 won ($32.64) but has fallen 14.5% in 2024. And JYP Entertainment managed a modest 0.7% gain, bringing its year-to-date deficit to 24.4%.