The highly-anticipated Warner Music Group initial public offering finally hit the Nasdaq. Closing its first day of trading at US$30.12 a share, this effectively rounds out the company’s total market cap valuation to US$15.3 billion.
It was announced prior to trading that Warner would set the opening price at around US$25. By opening, it was already steadily climbing to US$27. Of course, it wouldn’t stop climbing until 4 PM.
Suffice it to say, this has certainly been a tremendous win for WMG. Just as a means of comparison, their 2018 revenue amounted to US$4 billion. But the biggest winner here is Head of Access Industries, Len Blavatnik.
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Blavatnik purchased the entirety of WMG for a sum of US$3.3 billion back in 2011. Immediately after, he turned the company private. Yes, you read that right. Although the headline reads “first day of trading”, this isn’t the first time WMG has been traded. The last time it IPO’d, the share price was set at US$17 and decreased to US$16.40 by market close.
Whatever Blavatnik’s gameplan was, however, has clearly paid off in the form of a hefty return. His net worth is now US$7.5 billion fatter. And from where we’re standing, Warner Music Group has a bright future of trading ahead of it.