Investors tune in as Universal leaps on debut
It's home to stars including Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.
And investors seem to like what they hear.
Universal Music Group shares leapt more than a third in their stock market debut on Tuesday (September 21).
The world's biggest music label saw its market value in Amsterdam leap to almost $55 billion.
It was spun off by France's Vivendi, which handed a 60% stake in Universal to its shareholders.
But that saw Vivendi's own shares plunge as much as 20% as investors reassessed the media group's value without the music label.
U.S. hedge fund billionaire William Ackman and China's Tencent were among the major winners from the listing, alongside Vivendi's controlling shareholder Vincent Bollore, with all retaining large slices of the music giant.
Universal shares leapt around 39% in early trade.
The company hopes to build on deals with ad-supported sites such as TikTok and YouTube.
As well as streaming services such as Spotify.
It also has rights attached to its huge back catalog, which includes The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Billie Eilish.
And collects royalties for its artists across social media platforms.
The global health crisis hit live concerts and Universal's merchandising business.
But ad-supported revenues have picked up after a blip.
Its market listing is the biggest in Europe this year, and a coup for the Amsterdam exchange.
