Music stalwart puts itself up for sale

Benjamin Britten: Boosey owns rights to the composer's music

Classical music stalwart Boosey & Hawkes is to put itself up for sale, after a bid approach whetted its appetite for seeking a merger partner.

The firm, Britain's biggest classical music publisher and instrument maker, plans to invite bids "as soon as possible" for all or part of the group.

The move follows the company's rejection of a takeover approach on Monday from a mystery consortium.

The bid was deemed too low, and too conditional, to win board acceptance, a Boosey & Hawkes statement on Friday said.

The briefing added that company chiefs have ditched plans for a separate sale of the Rico woodwind business, so allowing the unit to be included in the group auction.

Troubled times

News of the auction comes 71 years after the company was formed in a merger of instrument maker Hawkes & Son and music publisher John Boosey, which traces its history back to the 1760s.

Boosey & Hawkes holds the copyrights to many of the best-known classical works of the 20th Century, including the catalogues of Elgar, Stravinsky, Britten, Bernstein, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev.

The firm's manufacturer portfolio includes the brands Besson, Buffet Crampon, Karl Hoefner and Soehne.

But despite the firm's heritage, it has suffered from the US economic downturn, and reported a loss of £1.6m for the first half of the year, compared with a £465,000 profit a year before.

The company also last year identified "a series of fundamentally incorrect and highly misleading" accounting entries at its US subsidiary Boosey & Hawkes Musical Instruments (BHMI).

'International presence'

Chief executive Richard Holland on Friday said Boosey & Hawkes retained "significant value".

"Both the instruments and publishing divisions are excellent businesses with a true international presence," he said.

"We have an unrivalled catalogue of classical music rights and a very strong portfolio of instrument brands."

In the City, Boosey shares stood 8.5p up at 171p in afternoon trade.

Two weeks ago, before the takeover approach was announced, the share price slumped to 76p, its lowest price for at least five years.

In August 1997, the stock topped 1000p.