Is there time to squeeze in one last public listing of a music company in 2021? There certainly is. Management and live firm ATC Group has listed on the London Stock Exchange, raising £4.2m ($5.6m) in the process. ATC says it will invest the proceeds in its business verticals of management, live, production and artist services.
Its prospectus offers more data on how its business has been growing, with revenues rising sharply from £3.3m in 2019 to £7.5m in 2020, then just over £5m in the first six months of 2021. Not that it is profitable yet: ATC recorded operating losses of £599k in 2019, £388k in 2020, and £2.5m (gulp!) in the first six months of 2021.
But not so gulp, actually: the latter figure relates to a “substantial investment into Driift” – ATC’s spin-off livestreaming business, in which it has a 52% stake. The prospectus also reveals that following the technical hitches around its Glastobury livestream this summer, Driift has signed a five-year deal with livestreaming tech firm (and fellow Deezer investee) Dreamstage to avoid such gremlins in future.
The prospectus also reveals that ATC holds a 5.4% equity stake in another livestreaming startup, Flymachine, and has more details on Deezer’s stake in Driift. The streaming service invested £2m in Driift at a £10m pre-money valuation, which suggests it has a 20% stake. Driift accounted for £4.7m of ATC’s £7.5m revenues in 2020, although the prospectus notes that £4.3m of that was spent on production costs and the contracted profit share for artists.
ATC hopes investors will back its view that its strategy of “developing ever deeper business relationships with artists through integrated investment, high-level service provision and long-term career planning” will be a winner as the music industry continues to evolve. “In the Directors’ opinion, artists will seek to redefine their relationships with business partners, moving away from legacy operators to take greater direct control over their endeavours,” runs the pitch.
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