- Universal Music shares jump on their first day of trading, as investors bet on the music industry’s renaissance
- Shell cleans up with the sale of one of its biggest oilfields – but at what cost?
Universal Music’s comeback gig
Universal Music (NL:UMG) has hit the high notes on its market debut.
Shares in the world’s biggest record label soared as much as 34 per cent on their first day of trading in Amsterdam, valuing the business at almost €50bn (£42.9bn) as investors rushed to grab a slice of the booming music industry.
Universal, which owns the back catalogues of many of the world’s biggest artists, completes its debut as a public company following a spin-off from its owner, Vivendi (FR:VIV). The French media group retains a 10 per cent stake in the record label, as it looks to cash in on the recent revival of the music business and potentially pursue more acquisitions.
Long-dismissed as an industry in decline, the world's biggest record labels have staged a dramatic comeback as the rise of streaming services funnels billions of dollars back to Universal and its peers. Earlier this year we asked: is it now time to invest in the music business? OT
Shell’s ESG conundrum
Where one oil company sees a legal and reputational liability, another sees a profit opportunity.
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) agreed today to sell its business in the Permian Basin to its US rival ConocoPhillips (US:COP) for $9.5bn (£7.0bn) in cash.
The Anglo-Dutch company’s exit from the Permian Basin, the biggest oilfield in the US and one of its core production sites, may appear to make little sense on purely financial terms. But Shell is under intense pressure to clean up its act: in May, a Dutch court ordered the company to slash its net carbon pollution by 45 per cent by 2030.
That ruling was lauded by climate activists, but today’s deal highlights an overlooked flaw in the green agenda: whenever one oil major is forced to pivot towards renewable energy, another will be there to pick up its dirtier assets. In recent months European companies like Shell have increasingly diverged from their US rivals, who continue to bet big on oil and gas. OT
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