Overview

• Bloomberg reports that Abel Tesfaye is negotiating roughly $1 billion in funding by pledging his publishing stake and master recordings as collateral, with no public comment yet from either side.
• Lyric Capital Group is said to be assembling the financing and has approached additional investors to participate.
• People familiar with the talks describe a proposed structure of $500 million in senior debt, $250 million in junior debt, and $250 million in equity.
• The arrangement would provide liquidity without a catalog sale, allowing the artist to retain ownership of his music rights.
• Half of his publishing is already owned by Chord Music Partners, and if finalized this would rank among the largest single-artist music-rights financings.