Latham & Watkins Advises KKR in Sale of Majority Stake in Chord Music Partners

Universal Music Group (UMG) and Dundee Partners, the investment office of the Hendel family and a current minority stakeholder of Chord Music Partners (Chord), have announced that UMG and Dundee will acquire KKR’s entire stake in Chord in a deal that values the portfolio at US$1.85 billion. Chord, which was formed in 2021 by KKR and Dundee Partners, is a pure-play catalog of premier music intellectual property. Chord’s portfolio includes works from many of the world’s most iconic artists and songwriters, including The Weeknd, OneRepublic, David Guetta, Lorde, Kid Cudi, Diplo, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Ellie Goulding, ZZ Top, John Legend, Twenty One Pilots, and many more.

Latham & Watkins LLP represents KKR in the transaction with a corporate deal team led by New York partner Justin Hamill and Chicago partner Jonathan Solomon, with counsel Julian Azran and associate Rachel Klein. Advice was also provided on tax matters by Bay Area partner Katharine Moir; on antitrust matters by New York partner Katherine Rocco; on entertainment, sports and media matters by Century City partner Jonathan West, with counsel Paul Iannicelli and associate Sam Lehman; on structured finance matters by New York partner Kevin Fingeret; and on private equity finance matters by Washington, D.C. partners Manu Gayatrinath, Christopher Clark, and Melissa Frankel Fabian.